A Guide to Advising Students About Humanities and Social Sciences

Program Overview
Detailed information about the new HSS Curriculum can be obtained at:
New Curriculum FAQ

The core curriculum includes a one-semester course  “Introduction to the Humanities and Social Sciences,” taken during a student’s first fall semester, followed by an elective in HSS to be taken during the spring semester of the the first year. In the fall semester, a student takes Humanities and Social Sciences 1, a four unit course meeting in sections of 18-20 students four times a week for 50 minutes.  (There is also sometimes one evening section that meets in two longer blocks.)

The format of Humanities 1 involves roundtable discussion of assigned readings, peer review of writing, writing workshops, student presentations of research and other material, library workdays, and a relatively small amount of lecturing. Reading topics are chosen individually by each instructor (and students are asked to express topic preferences), whereas workloads and writing assignments are coordinated by the entire teaching staff of each course. Each section requires the same number of papers (and paper revisions) due on the same dates, as well as the same end-of-semester writing portfolio. Writing portfolios are evaluated collaboratively by the Humanities 1 teaching staff. 

What are the H/SS requirements beyond the core?
Beyond Humanities 1 and the required elective, students must take at least ten additional courses in the humanities and social sciences (and the arts). These courses must satisfy distribution requirements in three areas: (1) arts, languages, and literatures; (2) the humanities; (3) the social sciences. They must include a four-course concentration, within a particular discipline or interdisciplinary area (such as Asian Studies). They must include five courses  taken from members of the college’s H/SS Department (to ensure opportunities for exploring questions in the humanities, the social sciences, and the arts with a critical mass of fellow HMC-students.

For further elaboration of the Department’s program requirements, please consult the H/SS advising handbook (PDF). 

Advising in the First Year

Is it possible to place out of either Humanities 1?
Transfer students aside, it is not possible to place out of these courses. The Department does not award placement for high scores on the Advanced Placement Test in English.

A student should not withdraw from either of these courses without the consent of the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. A student who does not pass Humanities 1 in the first year must re-take the course(s) during the second year.    

Each student will be assigned a humanities and social sciences advisor in time for the fall advising period and spring pre-registration. Usually a student’s Humanities 1 instructor becomes his humanities and social sciences advisor.

Summer courses require the advance approval of a student’s humanities and social sciences advisor. The best time to raise this issue with one‘s advisor would be during the spring advising period.   

Advising Beyond the First Year

From the end of the first year, H/SS advising is handled by a student’s Humanities and Social Sciences advisor, so there is relatively little for advisors in other departments to bear in mind. But the following points may be helpful:

• The department encourages students to make steady progress toward satisfying its program requirements. Students who leave five or more H/SS courses for the senior year will almost certainly be over-extended, especially if one of these courses is the required junior-senior seminar.
  
  
• The department encourages interested students to pursue study abroad opportunities. Students should consult with their H/SS advisors concerning the H/SS portion of their study abroad programs before leaving campus. It is the department’s policy to reduce the required number of departmental courses from five to four when a student spends a semester in an approved study abroad program.
  
  
• The department allows a total of two summer courses in H/SS to count toward a student’s program. (See above for approval procedures.) Study abroad courses are not counted in this total.
  
  
• Students may need to be reminded that the Integrative Experience is a college-wide, not an H/SS requirement. Integrative Experience courses offered by H/SS faculty will normally count toward H/SS program requirements as well.