First-Year Program

The components of the First-Year Program are advising by a faculty member specially trained in the unique academic needs of entering students, a First-year Seminar (FYS), instruction in and practice of Dickinson’s expectation for written work, and an opportunity to participate in a learning community. 

At Dickinson, academic advising is conceived of as teaching. As part of the First-Year Seminar’s introduction to Dickinson’s liberal education, seminar faculty members serve as their students’ initial academic advisor. For more on advising, please see the Office of Academic Advising.

First-Year Seminars are the first course in Dickinson’s Writing Program. To learn more, please see the Writing Program page. 

Two or more seminars that share a common theme may form a Learning Community. Learning Communities enroll students in a common residential learning environment that allows them to participate in a community committed to taking learning out of the classroom and into the residence hall, the community and the wider world. 

There have been a variety of First-Year Seminars offered in recent years.