orangebeach

Anyone care to give an overview of what to expect? From the reading material I have scanned, it appears that Freshman year at Lawrence is unlike typical universities. Am I correct in assuming that the courses are preset, and every freshman takes the same ones, regardless of declared major?

Also, can you comment on the difficulty of said courses with regard to amount of time spent studying, course content, grading, etc? I am only familiar with the UW state school systems.

overseas

This much I know is true: these courses set the foundation for the students to work in one-on-one tutorials as well as large discussion groups and may be why so many students continue on in research fields. Because they can. I think Freshman studies sets the stage for this and evens the playing field as much as possible for all the new students. It is a solid program, but many of them are happy to be done with it and to move on. If you go to LU, it is hard not to be an educated person at the end of the line in your cap and gown. The students know this.

Time studying: that depends on the student. The small groups vary by who is in charge. I don't think grading is very easy at Lawrence. But, they really work with students to get them back on track.

OperaDad

Is your question about "freshmen studies", which is a course, or the freshmen year?

It doesn't seem much different to me. All colleges have graduation requirements, and if you want to graduate in 4 years, you have to start meeting those requirements starting in your freshmen year.

Lawrence does require all freshmen to take Freshmen Studies. That is two of your nine courses during your first year.

If you are a music major, you also have Music Theory that you must take as a freshmen. But, that is no different than engineering students having to take calculus and physics as freshmen. If you don't, you won't graduate in 4 years. If you are not a music major, then you don't have to take Music Theory. So, to answer your question: Freshmen do not take ALL the same classes.

You are going to learn at Lawrence. If you don't want to do the work, then you should go to another school. If you are smart, then you won't have to spend a lot of time studying. If you are not, then you will have to spend a lot of time studying to make the grade. In order to answer the question specifically for you, you would have to tell us your grades, where you go to school, how are your SAT/ACT scores, how much work you currently do, etc.

watchthis

I am going to assume that you are asking about Freshman Studies and not about other classes, or about classes in general.

Lawrence students--including freshmen--typically take 9 courses per year. All freshmen take two Freshman Studies courses--one during the fall term (Freshman Studies I) and one during the winter term (Freshman Studies II). The works are the same from section to section--there are roughly 15 students in each section. The syllabus, at least in terms of numbers of exams and numbers of papers, is the same for each section. In addition, almost every work is supplemented by a lecture attended by all freshmen. The individual sections are taught by faculty from almost every academic discipline. (One might, for example, have a physicist for FSI and a historian for FSII.)

As for the other 7 courses taken during the freshman year, that’s determined by the student in consultation with his or her academic advisor. FSI and II are the only mandatory courses at Lawrence. They are the only courses taken by all students.

Other schools have programs that are somewhat like Lawrence’s Freshman Studies program--some, have simply copied it. Reed College has a year long program focusing on pre-renaissance works in the western tradition; it’s required of all freshman. Yale University has its Directed Studies program--comprised mostly of works in English lit and philosophy. It’s for, but not required of all, freshmen.

Freshman Studies at Lawrence is not easy; most students find it difficult. It can be very rewarding. It is designed in part as described by others above. It is also designed to get all students up to speed on writing the kinds of papers they will need to write for other classes and to give them a clear sense of what Lawrence will expect of them academically. (“Welcome to Lawrence; you’re not in high school anymore.”) The campus can be electric with intellectual excitement when all students in the Freshman Class are trying to work their way through, for example, Plato’s Republic.

vossron

"Other schools have programs that are somewhat like Lawrence’s Freshman Studies program--some, have simply copied it. Reed College ..."

Reed's course has been around for about sixty-five years, Lawrence's "for more than sixty years." I wonder if they had the same genesis.

Reed Magazine: The (Un)Changing Face of Hum 11O (1/2)
Freshman Studies - Lawrence University

orangebeach

I just had an ahaa moment! Thank you all for your responses.

I was under the impression that there was no choice in class selection the freshman year. Not quite how I came up with that conclusion. So, my son would be required to take two "freshman studies" classes, in addition to other required courses for his major during his first year. That makes sense, and helps the decision process.

watchthis

I didn't mean to imply that Reed was among the schools that simply copied Lawrence. (I am not sure that vossron thought that I did, but I want to make that clear.) I was listing Reed as a school that had a somewhat similar program. As for the genesis of Freshman Studies, I believe it was instituted by Nathan Pusey--one of two Lawrence presidents who went on to serve as presidents at Harvard. I don't know where Pusey got the idea, or if it was his own, or if he was connected with Reed.

idic5

My soph daughter enjoyed Freshman Studies last yr both academically and socially. I recall that she took a picture of the class, including the prof. since she felt a solidarity with the bunch of people in the class. She still talks with that prof, too, I understand.

vossron

^^ No, problem; I mentioned it for anyone who might think it's what you meant. I found a bit of history:

Nathan Marsh Pusey: an appreciation | Modern Age | Find Articles at BNET links Pusey with UChicago: "Pusey soon took up a position at Lawrence College in Wisconsin, where he put together a great books program in the humanities. In the Midwest, he discovered a kindred spirit and mentor in Robert Maynard Hutchins, father of the core curriculum at the University of Chicago."

Reed Magazine: How the Humanities Saved Reed (7/8) mentions Hutchins: "... Reed would mark a revolutionary development in American higher education. ... Its outcome—a core curriculum revolving around the humanities—would continue to influence other forward-thinking efforts in higher education. Meiklejohn would go on to launch the innovative Experimental College in 1927 with a unified curriculum patterned after Reed’s. Robert Hutchins’ groundbreaking efforts at the University of Chicago, also mirroring many of the innovations at Reed, would follow in the 1930s."

ConCerndDad

Columbia College, of Columbia University (NYC), has had its (in)famous and required "Contemporary Civilizations" course since 1919:

"The Core Curriculum is the set of common courses required of all Columbia College undergraduates. The hallmark of the Core is its commitment to the critical examination of serious ideas in the context of small and intensive classes. At its center stands Contemporary Civilization in the West (CC), a course founded in 1919 and which surveys the history of moral and political thought from Plato to the present over the span of two semesters. This course is required of all Columbia College sophomores. Masterpieces of European Literature and Philosophy, commonly know as Literature Humanities (or Lit Hum), similarly surveys, over two semesters, some of the most influential works in all of Western literature and is required of all first-year students. Both of these courses meet in small sections of 22 students for four hours each week and follow a common syllabus. Because of their intensity, breadth, and the close interaction among students and between students and their instructors, these two courses dominate the academic experience of a student’s first two years at Columbia. In addition to fostering ties among students and teachers, these courses create a community of intellectual discourse that spills over beyond the classroom and into dormitories, dining halls, and the many café’s that surround the campus. These two courses are the academic anchor of a student’s first two years, and are also a common intellectual referent as students move on to specialize in specific disciplines."

Not sure who's the chicken and who's the egg, though (not that it really matters. One should learn from history, which these courses, hopefully, teach).

AsterMom

To the OP's question, what to expect -- My D, a freshman arriving from a rigorous private high school program, has found the reading and writing load for Freshman Studies to be on the light side. She has greatly enjoyed and benefited from the class discussions and is very impressed with her section's professor. I do not think she would call the class easy, but it is certainly not crushingly difficult either. A welcoming yet invigorating introduction to the college, say.

overseas

From an article in the journal of Liberal Education, concerning Freshman Studies.....

Building autonomy: The transition to critical thinking and analysis

At Lawrence University, students take their first steps toward intellectual autonomy in Freshman Studies, a two-term course that serves as an introduction to liberal learning. Created in 1945 by then President Nathan Pusey, Freshman Studies is a collaborative, multidisciplinary effort, with faculty members from every academic department each working with about fifteen students on texts from a common syllabus drawn from all areas of the liberal arts. Recent syllabi have included works by Stanley Milgram, Elizabeth Bishop, Plato, and John Coltrane.

How can such a course fit into a program of individualized learning? Don’t all the students read the same works at the same time? The answer to those questions begins with the dedication of individual faculty members, who often spend hours working with small groups of students on papers and oral presentations. The point of those sessions is not simply to correct mistakes or clear up the argument; it is instead to help students understand what interests or grabs them about a text—and thus to suggest that, unlike the writing they did in high school, college-level papers and essays must be engaged with meaningful problems and questions. Further, by teaching freshman studies in a seminar setting, we strike a balance between intimidating first-year students with intense individual attention while providing individual challenges and supportive encouragement for students. Typically, a first-year student has begun to read more closely, write more carefully, and indeed to think independently after Freshman Studies. That is, he or she has cast off a familiar identity, that of a passive receiver of knowledge, and begun to take on another, that of an engaged thinker.