Success for Freshman Seminars

Course selection for first-years has always been rough, with many new students finding themselves adrift among the disappointing homogeneity of Core offerings, the impersonal vastness of Social Analysis 10 and the rigid format of some Expository Writing courses. This year, however, the first-year experience is beginning to change, as students find refuge in the newly expanded Freshman Seminar program.

After a strong push by Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles and Dean of Undergraduate Education Susan G. Pedersen ’81-’82, the Freshman Seminar program now offers more than 60 courses—a near-doubling of offerings over the past year. We applaud the Faculty for restoring the program to the heights it achieved in the 1980s and for providing an impressive number of new intellectual outlets for first-years.

The Freshman Seminar program began four decades ago as an attempt to improve undergraduate education during the first year of college. Today, seminars thrive due to their unique format. Somewhat less formal than other first-year courses, the seminars are graded pass-fail, limited to 12 students, and focused in depth on one specialized subject of interest to the professor—from calculating pi in Freshman Seminar 5 to searching for extraterrestrial intelligence in Freshman Seminar 35: “Are We Alone?” This structure contributes significantly to the seminars’ success, as students actively participate in meaningful discussion without competition for grades and under the guidance of a professor with a passionate interest in the material.

As an introduction to the College, freshman seminars allow first-years to build intellectual relationships with their professors and their fellow students. Seminars also have the potential to provide connections between first-years and the greater Harvard community. This year’s Freshman Seminar 19: “Considering Works of Art in the Harvard Museums” may introduce a first-year to University resources seldom taken advantage of by most students, while Freshman Seminar 18: “‘Knowing’ Boston,” may provoke students to venture into the city unfortunately unexplored by many Square-bound undergraduates.

However, the strengths of the Freshman Seminar program also illuminate many of the weaknesses of another aspect of Harvard education: the Core curriculum. Although the administration seeks to broaden students’ perspectives through the Core, it has instead limited the undergraduate learning experience with restricted offerings and prohibitively large class sizes. We celebrate the intensity of learning in the Freshman Seminars for the same reason that we balk at the watered-down courses offered in the Core. Moreover, the increased teaching demands on professors imposed by the expanded Freshman Seminar program may lead to even fewer Core offerings in the future.

The Core curriculum, which serves the entire undergraduate student body, should be willing to follow the Freshman Seminar program’s example and provide students with small, engaging courses that offer a strong environment for learning. The best way to accomplish this would be to change the Core to a distribution requirement, allowing students to pursue advanced subjects in another field. But in the meantime, a significant increase in Core offerings and cross-listed courses is needed.

We hope that the strong improvements in the Freshman Seminar program will indicate what is to come for the larger undergraduate community. There is no need for a stellar academic experience in the first year to be followed by three years of restraints on students’ intellectual exploration.