Academic Advising and Course Selection for Incoming Students

In addition to your First-Year Seminar, foreign language, and possibly a lab course, your first semester is a time to pursue and explore your academic interests. Dickinson offers more than 46 academic majors and programs! Choosing among them is a process that will require some careful thought. Because you’re making choices about your own interests and priorities, the process should also be fun!

REFLECT & ENGAGE

How should you begin choosing courses for your first semester? Reflect on your experiences and goals before engaging with the information and people available to help you make decisions.

Are you a worksheet-oriented person? Many students find this worksheet helpful in clarifying their sense of academic purpose. 

To get started, pick the path that describes you best. Each offers specific, appropriate guidance.

I WANT TO EXPLORE MY ACADEMIC INTERESTS AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE.

You’re coming to Dickinson and want to explore your academic interests as widely as possible. This is exciting! The opportunity for such exploration is a key feature of your liberal arts education. Dickinson’s curriculum—the totality of our courses, programs, and requirements—is designed to allow you to survey your options and ensure you find your way. Getting started is straightforward: reflect on your interests and priorities, evaluate the results, browse Dickinson's programs and departments, and then ask yourself what looks interesting and why.

As you probably know, Dickinson’s curriculum embodies our longstanding commitment to the liberal arts by combining breadth and depth. This tradition means that you will have opportunities to explore a variety of fields and earn mastery in a particular area. To gain breadth, you’ll take about half your courses in various fields that expose you to different perspectives or “ways of knowing.” To achieve depth, you’ll take roughly half your classes in a particular area, enabling you to develop specialized expertise. One of the many benefits of the combination of breadth and depth is that you will gain a rich repertoire of problem-solving skills. After you graduate, you may use a degree in English to pursue a career on Wall Street or a degree in economics to open a fine art gallery. (Dickinsonians have done both!)

The key right now is to focus on developing your authentic interests, which will likely evolve as you move forward. Students who arrive knowing that they want to explore often find that the biggest challenge is making sense of the 46+ academic programs we offer so you can find the best fit for yourself. Here, we’ll offer two practical suggestions and one (emphatic!) philosophical point. First, the pragmatic:

1. Whether you find it helpful to visualize future goals (such as developing your quantitative reasoning skills or learning a new foreign language) or to analyze past experiences (your favorite courses in high school, for example, or perhaps a life-changing volunteer opportunity) ask yourself why. Why did you find a particular course or project so interesting? Why do you imagine you’ll find a specific goal especially fulfilling?

2. Look for patterns and use them to brainstorm as you explore our programs of study. Are you most curious about how and why people organize themselves? Maybe you should investigate social science, such as history, international studies, or political science. Are you most curious about literature and other forms of cultural production? Maybe you should explore fields in the arts and humanities like anthropology, French, or art history. Do you like to design experiments and are fascinated by the natural world?  You probably want to consider programs in the natural sciences, like biology, chemistry, or earth science.  To get an overview of a particular department, we recommend that you check out its home page, its “Advising Guide,” and a few course descriptions from its “Curriculum and Courses” page, but please don’t imagine that you have to master all this information right now or on your own. Instead, pay attention to the ideas and possibilities that you find most compelling. (Not all courses listed on the “Curriculum and Courses” page are offered every semester; we’ll say more about this when you’re ready to identify specific courses.)

Next, the philosophical: As long as you’re developing thoughtful questions, you don’t need to have all the answers. A liberal arts education not only gives you the chance to explore and make choices, but exploring and making choices is a key part of it. Because we’re committed to breadth and depth, choosing to explore is an excellent decision.

ACTION ITEMS: 

1. Reflect on your interests and priorities
2. Evaluate the results: do you see patterns?
3. Browse our programs and departments: which ones look interesting?
4. Ask yourself “why”: Why do you find some possibilities compelling? Why do you find others less interesting?

All set? On to Step #3: Identify Courses and Organize a Possible Schedule

I AM CHOOSING AMONG 2-4 POSSIBLE INTERESTS.

You’re coming to Dickinson, and you’ve identified a small handful of leading interests. This is good! A liberal arts education allows you to experience a variety of fields as you work towards a decision about your eventual area(s) of specialty by declaring a major. We expect this process will take up to four semesters, so you have plenty of time.  What’s more, Dickinson’s curriculum—the totality of our courses, programs, and requirements—will call on you to continue to engage with different fields even after you choose an academic department that fits you best. 

As you probably know, Dickinson’s curriculum embodies our longstanding commitment to the liberal arts by combining breadth and depth. This tradition means that you will have opportunities to explore a variety of fields and earn mastery in a particular area. To gain breadth, you’ll take about half your courses in various fields that expose you to different perspectives or “ways of knowing.” To achieve depth, you’ll take roughly half your classes in a particular area that will enable you to develop specialized expertise. One of the many benefits of the combination of breadth and depth is that you will gain a rich repertoire of problem-solving skills. After you graduate, you may use a degree in English to pursue a career on Wall Street or a degree in economics to open a fine art gallery. (Dickinsonians have done both!) 

The key right now is to focus on developing your authentic interests and making strategic choices. Because you have already narrowed down our 46+ programs to a list of 2-4 possibilities, we recommend that you take a pragmatic and schematic approach to requesting your courses.  

• First, please familiarize yourself with the departments on your list rather than relying only on your experience in high school. For example, just because American Government was your favorite course last year, you shouldn’t assume that political science will be your field of specialty. What about international studies, history, economics, or policy management? Dickinson may offer a wider array of choices than you realize—the programs of study page links to departmental home pages.  
• Next, once you’re satisfied that you’ve found the programs that hold the greatest interest for you, have a look at the Advising Guide page on the department’s website and make a list of the courses recommended for FY students in the “Courses Appropriate for Prospective Majors” section and/or the “Suggested Curricular Flow through the Major” section.
• Repeat these steps for each field you’re considering.
• Once you have lists for each of the 2-4 departments you’re interested in, look for courses that appear more than once. For example, comparing the departmental recommendations in economics, political science, and international studies reveals that combining Economics 111 and Political Science 170 will provide a good, strategic introduction to all three fields.

• Now for the most critical step: ask yourself again whether these courses look interesting!  Many (many, many) years of experience have taught us that your level of engagement with your courses will be essential to both your academic success and the overall quality of your first year at Dickinson.  

Please give your level of interest serious thought.  Whether you find it helpful to analyze past experiences (your favorite courses in high school, for example, or a life-changing volunteer opportunity) or to visualize future goals (such as developing your quantitative reasoning skills or learning a new foreign language), ask yourself why. Why did you find a particular course or project so interesting? Why do you imagine that you’ll find one specific goal to be especially fulfilling? 

Now, you're ready to identify courses that fit your interests and priorities! On to Step #3: Identify Courses and Organize a Possible Schedule

I ALREADY KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I WANT TO STUDY.

You’re coming to Dickinson, and you’ve already figured out exactly what you want to study. Congratulations! Many years of experience have taught us that your interest, commitment, and energy will be among the greatest factors in a fulfilling, successful college experience.

As you probably know, Dickinson’s curriculum embodies our longstanding commitment to the liberal arts by combining breadth and depth. This tradition means that you will have opportunities to explore a variety of fields and to master a particular area. To gain breadth, you’ll take about half your courses in various fields that expose you to different perspectives or “ways of knowing.” To achieve depth, you’ll take roughly half your classes in a particular area that will enable you to develop specialized expertise. One of the many benefits of the combination of breadth and depth is that you will gain a rich repertoire of problem-solving skills. After you graduate, you may use a degree in English to pursue a career on Wall Street or a degree in economics to open a fine art gallery. (Dickinsonians have done both!) 

If you already think you know your major, selecting courses is fairly straightforward. However, you should consider some very important, fundamental questions.

• How do you know that you’ve found a major that fits you best? There’s no one right answer, but you should be able to answer this question for yourself!
• Why do you think the major you have identified will be intellectually fulfilling? The only wrong answer is…not having an answer!
• How does the major you have identified relate to your personal, professional, or civic priorities? It’s OK if the answer is that you haven’t (yet) identified any obvious points of correspondence!  But you should think about this question throughout your time at the College.

Next—and you’ve quite likely done this already—please double-check that Dickinson’s major matches your recollections and/or expectations by visiting the department's site. Once you’re satisfied that you’ve found the program that holds the greatest interest for you, have a look at the Advising Guide on the department’s website and make a list of the courses recommended for FY students in the “Courses Appropriate for Prospective Majors” section and/or the “Suggested Curricular Flow through the Major” section. Because you are already confident in your area of interest, the “Suggested Flow through the Major” section will be essential.  (Not all courses listed on the “Curriculum and Courses” page are offered every semester.)

Have you reviewed the department website?  Are you as intrigued and excited as ever? Your next step is to identify courses that fit your interests and priorities!

No matter what, ask yourself the most important question: does this program of study look interesting to you?  

All set? On to Step #3: Identify Courses and Organize a Possible Schedule