The Major
Requirements for Chinese or Japanese Concentration: 13 units (12 units if the student starts language study from the intermediate level or above) chosen from the Chinese-Japanese curriculum, including the required Chinese-Japanese 120, Chinese/Japanese 305-306, and the four additional content courses. At least two of the content courses must be at the 300-level. (Both Chinese/Japanese 350 and 351 can be counted toward the major, but only one can be counted toward the 300-level content course requirement.) Courses on the approved course list can be taken to fulfill the major requirements upon departmental approval. NRO option is not allowed after the declaration of major for courses counted toward the major. Courses that are only offered pass/fail (such as Independent Study and Field Work) cannot count toward the major. Majors are encouraged to take Chinese-Japanese 120 as early as possible. For students seeking to double major in Chinese and Japanese, or double major in Chinese/Japanese and another discipline, no more than two units may be double counted.
Junior Year Abroad and summer courses may substitute for the required courses with department approval. The department strongly encourages students to study abroad in China or Japan and commits to providing the students with supervised study away programs. The courses of Vassar’s summer programs in China and Japan are equivalent to their respective on-campus courses.
Honors’ Requirements: Students who wish to be considered for departmental honors must complete a thesis or project of sufficient quality. A thesis is normally written in both semesters of the senior year. A senior project may be done either as a one-unit course in one semester, or a half-unit course in each of two semesters.
Requirements for the Correlate Sequence in Chinese or Japanese: 6 units chosen from among Chinese 160/360 and Chinese or Japanese 105, 106, 205, 206, 298, 305, 306, 350, 351, and 399; at least 5 units must be taken above the 100-level and two courses must be taken at the 300-level. Junior Year Abroad and summer courses may be substituted with departmental approval, but at least 4 units must be taken at Vassar. Courses available for letter grades must be taken for letter grades.
Departmental courses are arranged in three groups: 1) courses in Chinese-Japanese literary and cultural studies (CHJA); 2) courses in Chinese language and literary/cultural studies (CHIN); and 3) courses in Japanese language and literary/cultural studies (JAPA).
