Liberal Arts & Sciences | Freshman Programs | Learning Communities | Senior Project

Freshman Programs

Contemplating the world, the past, your future? Freshmen take a two-semester course, Culture and Society in the West, where you study the big ideas and themes of Western culture.

Faculty cover historical periods in common, but their personality and academic subject interests shape the class. An art historian, for example, might use Greek sculpture, architecture, and medieval cathedrals to illustrate cultural themes that a philosopher might teach by reading Plato and Aquinas. An economist might inquire about how medieval cathedrals were funded and what economic pressures they put on the structure of their society.

What do you take away from this? You'll broaden and sharpen your thinking and critical skills. You'll learn to adapt. Be creative. Anticipate life.

Strengthen your communications skills in College Writing. This one-semester course prepares you to think and organize and argue and explain on paper. It will help you get through research and writing assignments throughout your years at Purchase. You'll be able to handle a range of written assignments at work, once you leave school. Maybe you'll even write a better letter or e-mail home to your mom or dad.

Understand the science in your world. In your second semester, you will be introduced to modern science through the study of a particular scientific issue with contemporary social relevance (for example: the global AIDS crisis, genetic engineering, the health of our oceans, the origin of cancer). The Science in the Modern World program will help produce students who can take their place in the world as enlightened, engaged citizens.

Appreciate diversity in your world. How are we all different? And how are we the same? Here at Purchase, you also will explore non-Western culture, race, and gender, across all your general education. Our Humanities and Social Sciences faculty are nationally known for their research and scholarship in these areas. They'll encourage you to grapple with the perspectives of historically underrepresented people such as women, members of minority groups, and non-Westerners.

For more information, visit theFreshman Programs site in Academic Programs.