Freshman Academic Planning Guide
Step 7) Selecting a First-Year Seminar
The first-year seminar introduces students to the pursuit of intellectual inquiry. Students will study a non-traditional topic in a non-traditional way while exploring the concept of a liberal arts education. Specific topics will vary from course to course and are described in the links to the right.* A First-Year Seminar is a General Education Requirement and exclusively for freshman students so it must be completed within your first year during either semester. You only need one First-Year Seminar course for your degree.
Features of the course include:
- College as you imagined it: a life of the mind
- Small class size
- Exploration of a topic of interest to the students and the faculty member
- Active discussion-based formats
- Exploration of primary texts rather than textbooks
- Development of writing and speaking skills, which will be needed in upper-level courses
- Critical examination of the literature
*All calendars, schedules, and assignments found within the links to the right are either samples of previous semesters or tentative schedules therefore subject to change.