First-Year Seminars

First-Year Seminars (FYS) provide students with a hands-on introduction to academic inquiry. FYS offer the opportunity to explore varied interests in small class settings with close faculty contact. Each entering student takes one FYS, in the fall of the first year.

More than 40 seminar topics are offered each semester. Topics are drawn from every school of the University and cover a wide range of interests, from bioethics and physics, to art history and English. Courses are developed by individual faculty members, giving them the chance to explore a subject that they are passionate about and have expertise in. All seminars provide opportunities for critical reading and thinking, and establish a foundation for effective written and oral communications skills, information literacy, and library research skills.