EXPLORE Your Interests and the Wesleyan Curriculum!
Professor Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, Professor of Classical Studies, Jane A. Seney Professor of Greek, urges first-year students to extend themselves beyond the typical high school subjects:
Now that you are starting to think about the courses you would like to take, you should remember a couple of things. This will be your first semester at Wesleyan, and so if you know that you will want to take advanced courses in some field, this would be a good time to take at least one of the introductory-level classes that are prerequisites for further study. They are identified for you in WesMaps. As a corollary to that first piece of advice, you should also take advantage of Wesleyan’s open curriculum to explore subjects that you’re not already familiar with. We have an extraordinarily rich offering of courses across the disciplines.
You should also keep in mind the General Education Expectations, that encourage you to take courses in all three of our academic “divisions” – Humanities and Arts (HA), Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS), and Natural Sciences and Math (NSM). Most course listings in WesMaps have a divisional identification. Go outside your comfort zone, take a chance, and – like many students before you – you may find that you are captivated by a field of study that is new to you. An excellent way to do the exploration is by enrolling in one of our First Year Seminars. They are specifically designed for new students and emphasize writing and class discussion and careful analysis. These are skills that you will use not only throughout your time at the University, but also after you graduate. Finally, allow yourself some flexibility, and leave some options open. Once you have made your selections, they are not final until you have met with your faculty advisor, shortly after you arrive on campus. At that point you might decide to revise your plan, and that’s fine. Think of this process as your introduction to a first-rate liberal arts curriculum, which necessarily combines structure and experimentation. Enjoy!