Scripps College

Scripps College Academics

Forget what high school teachers say about college courses: Attendance does matter at Scripps. When a class has only sixteen students (the average class size at Scripps), the professor knows when someone goes missing. In fact, regular participation usually accounts for at least ten percent of a final grade. This helps facilitate the process of students becoming more than just passive recipients of information and instead helps them become active agents in their own learning. The small class sizes also ensure that the faculty creates meaningful connections with the students. It’s not uncommon to see students and faculty enjoying a cup of coffee together in the Motley. Professors are also known to invite their classes to their houses for an end of the year barbeque or dessert celebration. Over fifty percent of Scripps professors are women, and one hundred percent of the faculty holds a Ph.D. or equivalent terminal degree.

While students take many if not all of their classes at Scripps, students also have the option of enrolling in courses across the other five colleges. If Scripps does not offer a particular major that another college does offer, students are allowed to fulfill the major requirements of the other institution. Students are also allowed to fill their general electives with courses at the other colleges.

All the women that I met at women’s colleges were incredibly confident, poised, and intelligent—features that I rarely saw in girls at the coed schools I had visited. Moreover, I just felt more comfortable at women’s colleges. I felt a great sense of support for women and women’s intellectual capability than I did at coed schools. —Laura Guaglianone ’07, double major studio art and English

Core

The interdisciplinary focus of Scripps starts early with all first-year students required to take Core I “Culture, Knowledge, and Representation” in the fall semester. It is a course unlike any other in the country in that it brings together twelve professors and the entire first-year class to discuss seemingly disparate topics such as music, philosophy, and metaphysics. The history of Enlightenment intellectual thought is studied by reading primary texts written by thinkers like Rousseau, Descartes, and Darwin, and is then deconstructed through contemporary critiques. Students rotate between attending lectures (given by a different professor each week) and smaller discussion sections organized around the common goal of critically questioning knowledge production and dissemination.

The following semester, students enroll in one of six Core II offerings that are team-taught by two professors, teaching a total of between thirty and forty students in a more specific but still interdisciplinary subject. Past courses have included “Women in Greek Myth,” “Communities of Hate: Genocide in the 20th Century,” and “Literary and Psychological Approaches to the Fairy Tale.” The program culminates with a Core III course taken the following autumn. Students have fifteen courses from which to choose, but in all sections students are expected to transform their knowledge into a final self-designed project. One of the most popular Core III courses is the foreign language and culture teaching clinic, during which students teach another language to elementary school students in the nearby communities. Students, who must have completed at least one upper division language course, may teach Dutch, French, German, Japanese, or Spanish. In the past, students have also been able to submit a syllabus for their own Core III course and, upon approval from the Core convener, students undertake the course under the supervision of a faculty member.

The Core program provides us with a great basis for a modern, liberal arts education. I have taken the significant readings with me to other classes and endeavors in my life. The program also helps develop the critical thought processes that give you a real leg up in the ‘real world. —Kathryn Densmore, ’07, European studies

General Electives

Besides the rigorous three-semester Core program, students are also expected to take a wide variety of general elective courses, including at least one course in letters, social sciences, natural sciences with a lab, fine arts, women’s studies, and race and ethnic studies. Many students find they can count most courses for up to two requirements (for example, the course “Women and Music” would count for both women’s studies and fine arts). Students must also take at least three semesters of foreign language and pass a precalculus or statistics math course. During first-year orientation, entering students take placement tests and can pass out of one or both of these requirements. While some find the requirements to be daunting at first, some students take a course they wouldn’t have otherwise taken and end up minoring or majoring in that very subject.

Joint Science Program

As a women’s college, Scripps prides itself on encouraging its students to pursue scientific knowledge, whether that be in a nonmajor course such as “Energy and the Environment” or through a major field of study such as chemistry, biology, physics, or neuroscience. Students may also combine science majors or create one with a specific focus, including bioethics or environmentalism. Courses are offered through the unique Joint Science Program, linking the resources of Scripps, Pitzer, and Claremont McKenna Colleges to offer an outstanding, comprehensive education in the sciences. The high level of thought that occurs in the science program can be seen through the Scripps students who produce award-winning research projects at conferences across the country. At an international conference on chromosomes last winter, one Scripps student presenter won an award typically given to graduate students. The projects undertaken by science majors ensure that upon graduation, students are more than prepared to pursue higher education in the sciences or continue on to medical school.

Majors

One of the strengths of the Scripps academic program is the ability for students to dual or double major in vastly different fields. Interested in neurobiology and studio art? Not only can a student major in both, but she would be expected to explore relevant connections between the two. Students also take advantage of the ability to create their own majors, with recent conceptions like bioethics and commercial communication and design. No matter what their majors, all students must complete a senior thesis. For a chemistry major, this could mean undertaking a major experiment and then writing and presenting the results. English majors usually write at least sixty pages on any topic in literature (one recent grad wrote hers on Harry Potter). Requirements across disciplines vary, but in all cases the thesis must be a substantial undertaking, bringing together the knowledge and know-how of the previous three years of study.

Off-Campus Study

Over 55 percent of Scripps students choose to study off-campus sometime during their junior year for one or both semesters. The Office of Off-Campus Study offers approved programs in every continent (with the exception of Antarctica). While some programs require a certain language proficiency, many others teach language skills in the host country. Foreign language majors must study abroad for at least one semester in order to meet their graduation requirements.

The Office of Off-Campus Study guides students throughout the whole process from narrowing down continent and country options to deciding on whether a home-stay or dorm life is the best option for any particular student. Because of the extensive application process that Scripps requires, almost all Scripps students are accepted to their program of choice.

The Scripps College Humanities Institute

Knowledge knows no bounds when it comes to the Scripps College Humanities Institute. The institute is focused around interdisciplinary studies, focusing specifically on a different theme for each semester. Each theme brings prominent scholars and speakers to campus. “The New Documentary Impulse,” for example, brought documentary filmmakers, war photographers, and radio journalists to campus to speak on the topic. Authors, think tank founders, activists, and artists have frequently been invited in other semesters.

While most institutes restrict their fellowships to graduate students, the Scripps Humanities Institute is unique in inviting undergraduate students to become Junior Fellows for a semester. Between ten and fifteen students are selected, meeting every week to discuss aspects of the theme as well as meeting with the speakers personally. While other classes may dally on what exactly an author meant in a sentence, Junior Fellows get the chance to ask the author herself.

No matter what program a student chooses, she pays Scripps tuition, room, and board and in return the Office of Off-Campus Study covers the host program’s tuition, room, and board as well as the cost of airfare to the host city. The Off-Campus Study program is anything but a semester long vacation—not only must students enroll in the equivalent of a full course load at Scripps, but all grades earned at the host institution are transferred as letter grades on the Scripps transcript. All the hard work generally pays off, and students come back more independent, mature, and culturally aware than they were before they left.

Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery

The Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery is appropriately housed in a stucco building near the art department building on the Scripps campus and houses nearly 7,500 art pieces. Selections from the collection, including works by impressionist artist Mary Cassatt and Japanese artist Chikanobu, are put on view throughout the year in conjunction with themed gallery shows.

Every year the gallery hosts the Scripps College Ceramics Annual, the longest running exhibition of contemporary ceramics in the country. Artists’ works are selected from across the country, and students are always invited to the opening reception and encouraged to attend the gallery throughout the year. Scripps art students also make use of the gallery in April during the annual senior art show, showcasing the significant projects that senior art majors