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Program Overview

HEAR FRom KAPLAN SCHOLARS THEMSELVES!

Why should you apply to the Kaplan Humanities Scholars program? These Fall 2023 Kaplan Scholars tell you what they loved most about the program!

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Why the Humanities?

One of the functions of the humanities is to preserve, extend, and revise traditional forms of knowledge in an ever-changing world. This enterprise is epitomized in the central humanistic concept of "critical thinking," and the Kaplan Humanities Scholars Program represents critical thinking at its best. In a sequence of two courses in the fall, about ninety incoming first-year students selected to be Kaplan Scholars are challenged to integrate a variety of intellectual methods. The themes of the program rigorously probe the qualitative aspects of human experience, and they are large, bold, and ambitious: Protest, Alternative Americas; Marriage; Drugs (Click HERE to see descriptions of past Kaplan Scholars courses).

Throughout the fall, the Kaplan Scholars form a particularly close cohort as they work together with award-winning teachers drawn from a range of humanities disciplines—literature, history, philosophy, gender studies, language and culture studies, art history, anthropology, religious studies, classics, political science and other humanities and humanistic social sciences. As befits its place at the heart of the humanities, the program focuses on reading, writing, and discussion, and each student’s analytical skills are honed through intensive engagement with these practices. The Kaplan Scholars learn to form complex opinions, to argue for important values, and to discriminate among competing forms of evidence. One of the signature features of the program is its extension of education beyond the classroom: students and professors attend performances and visit museums and other cultural and historical sites in addition to participating in the usual lectures and seminars.

An intensive preparation for the broadest possible range of programs and pursuits, the Kaplan Humanities Scholars Program is for the college’s most adventurous and imaginative minds, no matter what their intended major or field of study.

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How does it work?

If you are selected to be a Kaplan Humanities Scholar, you will take two courses in the program in the fall quarter of your first year. These classes will thus constitute roughly half your coursework for fall quarter. At the same time, each Kaplan course fulfills one of the specific graduation requirements that ALL students in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences must complete OUTSIDE their selected major, and thus the program is fully compatible with ANY major in the College.

In your first quarter, you will work closely with a team of two professors drawn from different departments. These professors have designed a special lecture course revolving around a particular topic (e.g., Empire, Utopia, Capitalism). In addition to taking this lecture course, you will take a coordinated first-year seminar with ONE of the professors, who becomes your advisor as well. Thus, you will take one lecture course and one first-year seminar in the fall to complete the requirements of the program.

How do I apply?

Admission to the Kaplan Humanities Scholars Program is based on materials already in your original Northwestern application file. We are looking for a diverse group of enthusiastic, top-notch students with broad interests, and you only need to indicate that you would like to be considered for admission to the program by filling in a short form (no additional application is required). The deadline for application is Sunday, May 25, 2025. Decisions are made by mid-July, and all applicants will be notified by the end of July.

Click here to access the page with the short application form.

For more information, please contact Tom Burke.