You must complete two freshman seminars in your freshman year, the first in the fall and the second in either the winter or spring quarter as assigned by the Office of Undergraduate Studies and Advising. Freshman seminars are the key component of your first-year experience as a Weinberg student. Your fall seminar instructor will also serve as your Freshman Adviser.
Freshman seminars are small, writing- and discussion-oriented courses geared to the investigation of a specific theme or issue and intended to hone your abilities as a critical thinker and effective writer. Successful completion of the freshman seminars, in fact, is the primary way for Weinberg students to satisfy the College’s writing requirement. They do not have prerequisites and do not provide a general survey of a discipline; instead they focus on a narrow but exciting aspect of a field. At the same time, they foster a more personal relationship with faculty than is possible in larger courses.
Students in HPME and MMSS are only required to take one freshman seminar and will be notified whether they should do so in the winter or the spring. Students in ISP and BA/BMus programs take seminars in both winter and spring.
You must earn a grade of at least D in your freshman seminars in order to count them toward the freshman seminar requirement. If you are not able to complete two seminars with at least Ds during your freshman year, you should meet with your Freshman Adviser or a Weinberg College Adviser to discuss how to fulfill this requirement. If you are enrolled for the entire first year as a Weinberg student and fail to complete the seminar requirement, you will be required to fulfill it in other ways in your remaining time at Northwestern. You will NOT, however, be permitted to register for a freshman seminar after your freshman year.
Freshman seminars do not count toward Weinberg College’ distribution requirements or toward most majors’ requirements.
Access descriptions and scheduling information for Spring 2012 Freshman Seminars.
Students who transfer into Weinberg College from another school at Northwestern or from another institution have different ways of satisfying the freshman seminar requirement. If you fall into this category, you will need to familiarize yourself with how to fulfill your freshman seminar requirement after transferring into Weinberg.
