{"id":14627,"date":"2022-03-31T14:27:38","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T18:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/dof\/?page_id=14627"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:38:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T21:38:04","slug":"first-year-seminar","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/dof\/first-year-seminar\/","title":{"rendered":"First-Year Seminar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is a First-Year Seminar?<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"Students<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Each first-year student takes a First-Year Seminar or FYS in their first Fall semester at Bates. Topics vary from year to year, but FYS courses represent a broad range of interdisciplinary issues and questions addressed within the tradition of the liberal arts. The First-Year Seminar (FYS) is the central academic component of a Bates student\u2019s First-Year Experience<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FYS provides students with valuable opportunities to learn about resources at Bates that support curricular and co-curricular exploration, health and wellness goals, and discovery of self as a valued, included, responsible, and responsive member of the broader Bates community. To that end, the FYS includes a set of Lyceum-based First-Year Experience (FYE) workshops, which align with the 6 values<\/a> that structure a student\u2019s FYE Summer Resources and New Student Orientation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All FYS courses are tagged as W1 courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If the FYS is a W1, what is the W1?<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n
\n
\"Research<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Courses that carry the W1 tag help students to develop a useful process for writing, to transfer the writing skills with which they enter college to their studies at Bates, and to acquire a foundation of skills that they can then transfer to writing in subsequent courses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writing-attentive curriculum at Bates is designed to provide students with a solid footing in using writing as a means for communication, scholarship, intellectual discovery, and civic action. While writing and communication are woven throughout the Bates curriculum, writing receives explicit focus in a three-tiered writing requirement that must be completed at Bates over a student\u2019s four years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of their General Education Requirements<\/a>, students must take at least 1 W1 course (most often the student\u2019s FYS), at least 1 W2 course (most often a seminar in the student\u2019s major), and 1 W3 (most often the capstone within the student\u2019s major)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/strong>Is the FYS part of a major? If I am thinking about a particular major, should I take an FYS in that major area of study?<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n
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\"Students<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Students do not need to be concerned with your possible major or possible minor when choosing an FYS. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enrollment in an FYS is its own requirement (it fulfills the W1 and it may fulfill if a particular Mode of Inquiry) within the General Education Requirements<\/a>, and taking a certain FYS has no impact on whether a student will be able to major or minor in a particular field of study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is a First-Year Seminar? Each first-year student takes a First-Year Seminar…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_dimp_site_id":"","_dimp_override_contact":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"class_list":["post-14627","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/dof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/dof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/dof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/dof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/dof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14627"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/dof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19837,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/dof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14627\/revisions\/19837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/dof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}