This curriculum affirms the intrinsic worth of a broad exposure to intellectual and artistic achievements and strives to nurture students' capacities for knowledge, understanding, judgment, and compassion. Teaching is the primary activity and responsibility of the faculty, which is also active in research and service. Developing skills in the methods by which knowledge is acquired, evaluated, and appropriately applied is the primary activity and responsibility of students. Literature, Fine Arts, History, Religion and Philosophy, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and the Social Sciences. Davidson allows double majors.
Some departments offer a minor.
The Davidson curriculum stresses competence in reading, writing, fundamental mathematical skills, oral communication, and the basic use of computers. Students may develop oral communication skills through class discussion, seminar presentations and formal speech courses. Computers are used in most laboratory science courses, mathematics courses and in individual courses in economics, political science, psychology and the humanities. In order to make connections among courses and disciplines, the curriculum includes opportunities for students to pursue a concentration or a minor as well as a major. A concentration is an interdisciplinary cluster of courses which addresses a specific area of study.