The College Seminars are reading- and writing-intensive courses for first--year students. Topics vary from year to year, but all the seminars are discussion-oriented and strive to engage students in examining questions and debates that are of general concern both within and outside the framework of any particular field or profession. As such, they are likely to address fundamental issues that exceed as well as establish the boundaries of any department or group of disciplines. The seminars require and support careful reading of texts and critical engagement with ideas and emphasize the need to write clear and cogent prose as a necessary condition for good interpretive essays. Course materials include books and essays but also films, material objects, social practices, scientific observations and experiments.

All students are required to take a College Seminar 1 during the first semester of their first year.