Five Days that Made the Middle Ages. Being and Becoming Human. Doubles in Literature. Language. The 52 First Year Initiative (FYI) seminars offered this year varied from the highly specialized to the wide reaching and everything in between.
Promoted by the Undergraduate Admission website as discussion-based classes limited to 20 first-year students, FYIs sound like a liberal arts student’s dream come true. However, after a semester and a half of college experience, many freshmen have mixed feelings about FYIs.
“FYI seminars are for a small number of students with only one section, offered once,” said Daylin Ackerman ’09. “There’s something inherently wrong with that.”
Ackerman and others believe that the 20-person limit may be part of an attempt to increase Wesleyan’s ranking on U.S. News’ Top Liberal Arts Colleges.
“Could it be based on ranking?” Ackerman said. “Absolutely.”
Assistant Dean of Admissions Jason England ’03 said this is untrue. According to England, FYI seminars were created about ten years ago to give freshman more attention than they would receive in large classes, as well as a chance to experience tutorials with a more “senior feel.”
“All that seems absurd to me [and] I’ve heard a lot of Wesleyan conspiracy theories,” England said.
FYI teachers express similar apathy about the seminars improving Wesleyan’s ranking.
“I like [the classes], so I don’t care if it’s a conspiracy or not,” said Visiting Professor in Physics Mark Shapiro.
Status scheme or not, the small class size and limited enrollment of FYI seminars can make getting in a challenge. Reid Pitney Higginson ’09 hasn’t taken an FYI because he hasn’t been able to get into any he finds interesting. While he wanted to take Personal Identity and Choice, too many other students were on the waiting list.
“I think about the FYI I’m not in every day,” Higginson said. “I was mad enough to kill [after not getting in].”
Lisa Sussman ’09, who is currently enrolled in Personal Identity and Choice, agrees that the enrollment problem is not easily remedied.
“If there are a few you want to take and you can’t get into them this year, there’s no chance,” she said.
FYIs also encounter the criticism of being too simple, or the praise of being ‘easy A’s.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Arata Hamawaki, who teaches Beginning Philosophy, disagrees with this assumption.
“I’m definitely not going to give all A’s,” Hamawaki said. “It’s never happened before.”
While most students enjoy the overall structure of FYI seminars, many have ideas for improving their availability. Popular suggestions include holding multiple sessions of some classes, enlarging initial enrollment size, and hiring more teachers.
However, some students, like Eric Weiskott ’09, see no point in modifying FYI seminars.
“I don’t think they could get any better,” Weiskott said. “They are awesome classes.”
Anaka Hennings ’09 advised next year’s freshmen to choose FYI seminars wisely.
“Don’t just pick something that you want to sit there and not care, because the class is so small you’re going to go out of your mind,” Hennings said.
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