Literature

The study of excellent literature speaks to the diversity of human thought and experience, and it inculcates habits of attentive reading and reflection that students will use for the rest of their lives. It is fundamental training for critical thinking skills. In many cases, college marks the last time students will read books they do not choose themselves, making it even more urgent to offer this core educational experience.

What Will They Learn?TM gives schools credit for Literature when they require a comprehensive literature survey or a selection of courses of which a clear majority are surveys and the remainder are literary in nature, although single-author or theme-based in strucure. Freshman seminars, humanities sequences, or other specialized courses that include a substantial literature survey component count.

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What Will They Learn?TM provides unique information on whether colleges make sure their students learn the things they need to know. You can find what they expect their graduates to study outside their majors, how much they are charging, how many of their students graduate, and what the colleges say about the education they offer. You can find out which ones follow the best practice of using a standardized assessment to measure student learning gains in core collegiate skills. There are more than 1,000 institutions currently covered, and we'll be updating continuously.

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