Directed Studies
Directed Studies (DS), a selective program for freshmen, is an interdisciplinary study of Western civilization. One hundred twenty-five students are admitted each year. All students enrolled in Directed Studies take three yearlong courses—literature, philosophy, and historical and political thought—in which they read the central texts of the Western tradition. Each course has one lecture and two seminar meetings each week. The lectures provide a general introduction to the works studied and situate them in their historical and cultural context. The seminars are small groups of no more than eighteen students who meet with a faculty member to discuss works in greater detail. Students are expected to write three papers per term in each course and to take one final examination per term in each course. Paper assignments are coordinated among the courses so that only one paper is due in any given week. The regular lectures and seminars are complemented by a series of colloquia. Members of the Yale faculty and visiting scholars are invited to speak on major issues arising from works read in the program, on related disciplines not included in the program, or on the relationship between Western civilization and other cultures. Colloquium topics in recent years have included the role of toleration in the rise and fall of dominant world powers, reflections on Gnostic Christianity, and why leaders need to read great books. |
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Directed Studies provides one of the most challenging intellectual experiences available at Yale College. Although Directed Studies is a demanding program, its students participate in the full range of activities at Yale. Directed Studies fulfills distributional requirements for humanities and arts, social science, and writing. The program serves as a strong foundation for all majors in Yale College, including those in the sciences.
The Yale College Admissions Office offers a certain number of students admission to Directed Studies on the basis of their Yale College application. All other students who matriculate at Yale are invited to apply to Directed Studies. For application information, see the Directed Studies Web page.
Students enrolled in Directed Studies must take all three of the following yearlong courses:
- DRST 001, 002b, Directed Studies: Literature
Examines the Western literary tradition from classical antiquity to the twentieth century. In recent years, works and authors have included Homer, Aeschylus, Vergil, the Bible, Dante, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe, Tolstoy, and Proust. - DRST 003a, 004b, Directed Studies: Philosophy
Examines major figures in the history of Western philosophy with the aim of discerning characteristic philosophical problems and their interconnections. It includes theories of the nature of knowledge, value, and reality. There is emphasis on Plato and Aristotle in the first term and on modern philosophers in the second, including Descartes, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, and Nietzsche. - DRST 005a, 006b, Directed Studies: Historical and Political Thought
Surveys Western historical and political thought from the Greeks to the twentieth century. The writers considered include Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, More, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Tocqueville, Mill, and Marx.
