Discover every path Colby offers

The Colby catalogue lists departments and programs alphabetically, as though the order didn’t matter. But if you look at which majors share a gateway course, which ones lock each other out, and how a first-year course you already took can open three doors, things start to make more sense. The routes in this chart follow the shared requirements, our joint degree options, and the named prerequisite bridges that got so many of you through your minor and into the major it lives inside. Beneath every route are the requirements all Colby students have to finish, no matter which major they pick.

101programs charted: every major, concentration and minor in the catalogue

39of them minors, tethered to the major they sit inside

397requirement links between them

86of those cross a division boundary

Drag to pan · pinch or ctrl-scroll to zoom · click a program for its route

Solid pale lines mean two programs share a required course, dashed lines mean that shared requirement crosses a division boundary, the shorter coloured lines tether each minor to the major it lives inside, and any line turns Colby Blue when you select a program at one of its ends.

Underneath all of it

Bachelor of arts · all-College requirements

Every route on the chart above sits on the same base plane. 128 credits, at least seven full-time semesters, a 2.00 cumulative average, and a fixed set of courses you owe the College whichever major you pick. Normally you clear the distribution areas in your first two years, which is exactly when the major requirements are lightest. No part of any of it may be taken satisfactory/unsatisfactory.

The six distribution areas

AArtsOne course · history, theory or practice of the creative arts

HHistorical StudiesOne course · cultures and societies as they change through time

LLiteratureOne course · literary works, and the methods for analysing them

QQuantitative ReasoningOne course · reasoning about formally defined abstract structures

N ×2Natural SciencesTwo courses, and at least one must carry a substantial laboratory (Lb, or OptLb taken with the lab)

SSocial SciencesOne course · methodical inquiry into human behaviour and interaction

Your first year, specifically

A W1 writing course, during the first year.The only exemption is a transfer student who completed an equivalent before arriving. W1 courses run out of departments across the College (Writing, English, Physics, Psychology among them) and all of them centre on drafting, argument and revision.
A January Program, on campus.First-years must take one and, unlike everyone else, cannot opt out. You get preference in 100-level programs. Fail to register by the third day of January and it is recorded as a failed program on your transcript.
The First-Year Journey, in full.Part of the wellness requirement, along with the web-based eCheckup and a two-session sexual violence prevention training, both due in the semester you arrive. It earns no academic credit and is still a graduation requirement.
Start the language requirement.Take the placement exam; the score lands in Workday. New language, register at 125. Continuing one from school, register where placement puts you. Native speaker of a language taught here, contact that department chair and the requirement is marked fulfilled.
Expect to live at the 100 level.First-years get priority there; 200-level courses only open to sophomores and above. You may declare a major in your second semester, but nothing forces the decision until you register for junior year.

The rest of the ledger

Credits: 128 minimum, earned across at least seven semesters of full-time study. At most 16 of them may be satisfactory/unsatisfactory. A normal load is 12–16 credits a semester plus one January offering worth up to three.
Residence: At least 64 credits earned in residence, and at least four semesters as a resident student, including your last one. Resident means full-time, 12 credits or more, paying tuition at the semester rate.
Grades: 2.00 cumulative minimum. A semester below 2.00 puts you on probation; below 1.70, or below 2.00 while already on probation, is dismissal for an academic year.
Foreign language: Three semesters of a single language: modern languages usually numbered 127 and up, classical usually 131 and up. Or place out: 640+ on an SAT subject or Colby placement test, 4–5 on an AP, 6–7 on an IB higher-level exam or 7 on a standard-level one. Or complete the intensive program in Salamanca or Dijon. Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Russian and Spanish are taught here.
Diversity: Two courses centrally concerned with prejudice, privilege, oppression, inequality and injustice: their structures and consequences, the efforts against them, or the progress made. One must treat these as they concern the United States (U), one in a context other than the United States (I). Many also satisfy an area requirement at the same time.
Wellness: Three programs: the web-based eCheckup, a two-session sexual violence prevention training, and the First-Year Journey. Certified by the Dean of the College Division, worth no academic credit, and not finishing it can cost you leadership positions and application-based housing.
The major: Exactly one is required. You may declare from your second semester and must declare before selecting junior-year courses. You can change up to the end of junior year if you have 12 credits at a 2.00 average in the new one. If your major average falls below 2.00 in senior year the degree is not awarded.
January Program: Three if you are in residence seven semesters or more, two if six or fewer. No more than one a year except in unusual circumstances. January courses carry zero, two or three credits, and you are expected to put 30–40 hours a week into one.

Reading a course number

000Noncredit January programs. Priority to first-year students unless noted.

100Priority to first-year students. Most of your first year lives here.

200Open to sophomores and the classes above.

300Open to juniors and seniors.

400Restricted to seniors.

Reserved numbers you will meet on the chart: 090 internship, 091 and 291 January independent study, _97 and _98 special topics, 483 and 484 honours project, 491 and 492 independent study. An instructor may admit you to a level normally closed to your class, and to any course whose stated prerequisite you have not met.

Index of programs

Natural sciences & mathematics

The most sequenced division at Colby. Almost every route here is gated by a first-year lab or a calculus placement, and several majors formally exclude each other, so the order you take things in matters more than it does anywhere else on this chart.

Social sciences

The hinge of the chart. Every department here runs its own research-methods course, and those are the most widely substituted requirement at Colby: pass one and you have partly satisfied four other programs.

Humanities

Fewer prerequisites, more joint degrees. Classics and English are braided into three combined majors, computation reaches into music and theater, and the area-studies departments are built almost entirely out of other departments’ courses.