Choose Your Own

Are you ready to shape your own learning? The individually advised curriculum at Grinnell College puts you in charge.

There’s only one required course outside of your major, the First-Year Tutorial. So each semester you’ll have 16­–18 credits for exploring the academic world.

Regardless of the courses you choose, you’ll learn how to think critically, to communicate well orally and in writing, and to work collaboratively with a diverse group of people.

You’ll have a guide for your academic explorations. Your First-Year Tutorial professor will also serve as your academic adviser until you declare a major.

Finding Unexpected Interests

One of the main reasons Emma Lingle ’18 chose Grinnell was because of its open curriculum. “It gives you time to figure out what you want to do,” she says. During her first semester, fall 2014, she took courses in anthropology, environmental systems science, French, and her tutorial, A History of Food in the United States.

Anthropology was a new subject for Lingle and she thoroughly enjoyed it. “I love the idea of learning about different cultures,” she says, “and because I love to travel so much I like the idea of knowing the origins of so many people’s ways of life.”

So when it came time to register for spring classes, another anthro class was at the top of her list. Lingle’s adviser, Assistant Professor of History Al Lacson, says, “I am thrilled when students identify an unexpected intellectual interest.”

He likes to ask students why they find a particular academic discipline interesting. “It’s important for their growth to think about the kind of questions and issues that matter most to them,” he says.

Lingle also appreciates Grinnell’s reputation in the sciences. To flesh out her technical side this spring, after going light on it last fall, she’s taking chemistry and intro to statistics. “College isn’t the time where you close off your possibilities for the future. College is something that should open you up to all the possibilities,” she says.

Lingle says, “A lot of my friends knew what they wanted to do already, at the end of our first semester.” That can be intimidating for students like Lingle, who is still exploring. But she found reassurance from Lacson.  

“There’s a reason students don’t need to formally choose a major until their second year,” he says. “The point of college is to help students figure out their interests — not just service interests that were developed as high school students. College years provide students with an opportunity to determine the kind of public and private self that they want to fashion for themselves.”

Designing Your Own Major

Students who don’t identify a major quickly may also find reassurance in the story of Amul Gyawali ’15. An international student from Katmandu, Nepal, Gyawali chose Grinnell because he wanted the option of taking classes in any department he might find interesting. He says, “You have the opportunity of developing a side interest. Academically that helps you. You end up getting a well-rounded education.”

One class that especially shaped Gyawali’s direction was History of the Modern Middle East with Caleb Elfenbein, assistant professor of history and of religious studies. “The class opened my eyes,” Gyawali says. “It made me realize how important the colonial legacies still are in the region and how interested I was in the subject.”

Gyawali was so interested that he developed an independent major in colonial and post-colonial studies with Elfenbein and Shuchi Kapila, professor of English, as his advisers. “Grinnell’s open curriculum helps you take ownership of your education,” Gyawali says. “At the same time, you’re working very closely with your advisers. The adviser-student relationship is what makes it all work.”

Gyawali adds that the professors have the highest degrees in their field — they know their stuff. “They also work hard to get to know you — your personal interests and your academic interests,” he says. “So when they give you personal, well-crafted advice for your sake, it makes it a little bit more comforting.”

Whether you pursue an established major or craft your own, the individually advised curriculum puts you and your intellectual needs and desires at the center.

Emma Lingle ’18 is from Webster Groves, Mo. Amul Gyawali ’15 is from Katmandu, Nepal.