Prospective Students

Choosing Your Own Path

Perhaps the best way we can describe the Knox academic curriculum is to say it's a system of guided independence.

Rather than giving you a set list of courses to check off, your faculty advisor will help you assemble just the right combination of classes, research or creative projects, internships, off-campus study, and more to fit your intellectual goals as well as the graduation requirements. That is, you'll develop your own educational plan.

Building a Foundation
Your education starts in First-Year Preceptorial, an interdisciplinary course that all first-year students take, where you'll begin developing the skills of synthesis and intellectual flexibility needed for creative thinking and problem solving.

During your first two years, you'll explore widely among the academic disciplines and follow your own interests. In consultation with your faculty advisor, you'll choose a selection of courses that span the arts, the natural and social sciences, and the humanities, which will expose you to the range of ideas and ways of thinking that are central to a liberal arts education.

Along the way, you'll demonstrate your abilities to write clearly and speak persuasively, understand and use mathematical concepts and information technology effectively, have a working knowledge of a second language, and understand the role of diversity in an increasingly interconnected world.

Making It Personal
By the end of your sophomore year, you will be ready to sharpen your focus enough to select a major field of study, plus a second field of concentration (which could be a minor, or it could be an additional major). You can choose from courses of study that include 38 majors, 52 minors, and 11 cooperative degree fields, or you can propose a self-designed major or minor.

One of the great advantages of an education that gives freedom to flourish is the opportunity to work closely with your professors on independent study projects. In fact, more than 90% of Knox students complete a research project or participate in a self-designed class before they graduate. You might work as a research assistant in a professor's lab, study a subject not offered in the regular curriculum, or follow up a topic you really loved with a more advanced research or creative project.

You'll also build in opportunities to apply your knowledge in real-world situations through hands-on learning opportunities outside the classroom (a.k.a. "experiential learning") via:

• Internships with employers ranging from Galesburg Cottage Hospital to NATO in Brussels
• Study abroad or other off-campus study, in places such as Argentina, China, and Tanzania
• Community service activities that make a difference near and far, from harvesting the community garden on campus to helping young girls in India learn ways to avoid exploitation and assert their human rights

Most personalized education plans at Knox culminate in a capstone project that lets you demonstrate your command of your field through a senior seminar, research project, or portfolio.

• Learn more about how your faculty mentors will guide you.