First-Year Seminars

Our most seasoned faculty will challenge you to think critically and imaginatively. Your seminar might even take you beyond the classroom—to attend a professional theatre production, tour an historic Boston site, visit a local radio station, or many other experiential opportunities.

Seminars are kept small to encourage you to get to know your professor and classmates well. You may choose from a wide variety of seminar options to find one that intrigues you most—you can explore a topic you’ve always been curious about or jump right into a major that interests you. When you receive notification to register for classes, you will receive access to a list of specific First-Year Seminar courses offered in your first semester to choose from.

In the past, popular course themes have included:

• What is a Fact?
• Enlightened Insanity
• From Jazz to Jay-Z
• Curators, Collections, and Exhibits
• Nasty Women in American Literature
• Fantasy Fiction
• Space Missions
• History of Boston
• Attention in the Age of Distraction
• The Playwright and the Stage
• Global Challenges on Film
• Mad Criminals
• In the First-Person
• The US-Mexico Border

Our Mission

The First-Year Seminar program began in 2005 and represents a cornerstone of the enhanced curriculum of the College of Arts & Sciences. The program provides incoming first-year students with a 4-credit course taught by an expert faculty member in the manner of an upper-class seminar. Each course is limited to 20 students in order to encourage a high level of both student-to-student and student-to-faculty interaction. The mission of the First-Year Seminar program is to introduce new students to the intellectual rigors of college-level work, to assist students as they transition from high school to the university, and to prepare students for continued academic success. Seminars are writing-intensive and designed to foster critical thinking skills. They reflect a liberal arts approach to education and encourage students to participate in cultural and intellectual activities and events outside of the classroom, both at Suffolk University and in the greater Boston community. New students will be invited to register for their first semester courses, including their First-Year Seminar, shortly before orientation.

First-Year Seminar Goals

All First-Year Seminar courses will:

• Encourage engagement in cultural and intellectual activities and events outside the classroom, and/or through hosting guest speakers
• Expect students to participate actively in class discussion and/or formal presentations

During their Seminar courses, students will:

• Learn how to analyze course texts
• Demonstrate critical thinking skills at the synthesis level in their written work
• Have the opportunity to expand their interests, establish interdisciplinary connections, and work on their academic and practical skills in a variety of contexts, both in and outside of the classroom

Through mentoring activities and class instruction, faculty will familiarize students with Suffolk University and the network of resources available to promote intellectual and personal success, such as:

• Center for Learning & Academic Success
• Mildred F. Sawyer Library
• Canvas
• Ford Hall Forum