First-Year Seminar Program

Catherine Oertel, Associate Professor; Director

The First-Year Seminar Program (FYSP) is a unique opportunity for in-coming students to begin their Oberlin educational experience in a small seminar setting. The topics and academic approaches of seminars are very diverse, but they are all designed to help students hone their critical thinking and their discussion and writing skills. Moreover, first-year seminars provide important opportunities for students to get to know a faculty member well and to reflect upon the personal value and social relevance of a liberal arts education. Seminars are either Writing Intensive (WINT) and/or Quantitative and Formal Reasoning (QFR) courses. The Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences strongly urges all College first-year students to enroll in a first-year seminar.  Students should note that the vast majority of first-year seminars are offered in the fall semester. For up-to-date information, as well as expanded descriptions of seminars for 2017-2018, please visit the First-Year Seminar Program’s web site for students at www.oberlin.edu/fys.