We have designed the program on the following principles:

IPH is for the intellectually ambitious. Students apply for admission to the major by submitting a portfolio during their sophomore year.  While in pursuit of the major, students are evaluated through a Junior Comprehensive Exam, a language exam, and a senior honors thesis. Most of our majors achieve college honors through the successful completion of the above.

IPH is founded on the Text & Tradition core program and on the humanities-themed FOCUS programs in which students engage with a flexible canon of important books in European and American, ancient and modern intellectual traditions.

IPH is more than a major – it is a sustained group project involving faculty and students. It aims to establish a small intellectual community comprised of students and faculty who regularly engage each other (and each other’s ideas) both in and out of the classroom.