Only one dozen students from Harvard and Radcliffe concentrate in Germanic Languages and Literatures. Since the faculty of the German Department numbers 24, there are who staff men to cater to the whims and wishes of each concentrator.
No other field of concentration in the College dispenses more personal attention.
The small undergraduate roster of the German Department is a mystery to its heads and the students in it. Their field is different from something like History and Literature, which lures so many freshmen, only in that the work is less taxing.
No Stress on the Tongue
Honors candidates must take eight courses within the field but four may be in related subjects and their range is a broad one. If a candidate for a degree wants to dispense with honors he need tackle but six courses from the department, two of them in related subjects.
Prospective concentrators in Germanic Languages and Literatures should not enter the field under the illusion that they will get linguistic training. Comparative Philology is the field for that. Even if they are new to German they will take probably only two language courses, German A and German C or D, neither of which is so painful as it is often reported to be.
From there on in, the emphasis is on literature. German 50, a Survey of German History and Culture, is the usual introduction to this section of the field. These who took the course this year cheered it almost unanimously.
Goothe Gains Backing
Professor Karl Vietor's German 120, a Goethe course, and German 150, German Literature since 1900, were among the most popular of the more advanced courses.
Tutorial begins in the sophomore year and goes on intermittently until the sensor year, when all concentrators get at least an hour each week.
In as much as the German concentrators and the German faculty comprise a close knit, friendly unit where help is easily available for the students, marks rarely go below B minus in the advanced courses.
Motives for concentrating in German vary; most frequently German concentrators want to continue work with their subject after graduation from college.
Withal, it's a pleasant field that virtually assures plenty of personal attention and respectable marks.
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