First-year seminar
Connections begins here.
You can choose from a variety of first-year seminars. You might like the one about epidemics. Or the art of time. Or wealth and poverty. Tell us what interests you the most, and we’ll place you in a class.
Your seminar will be small. Your instructor will serve as your adviser from now until you declare your major in your sophomore year. Of course, you’ll have a whole team of advisers.
In this jam-packed class, you’ll learn all about Connecticut College—its mission, core values and commitments. You’ll learn much more about the Connections curriculum. You’ll find out how to conduct top-notch research, how to give a persuasive presentation and how to enhance your writing skills. And you’re going to explore your seminar topic from multiple angles and perspectives.
Connections Resources for First-Year Students
Team Advising
As a first-year student, you are living in a new place, among new people, learning new things in new ways. Navigating all this novelty can be a challenge. We have an excellent solution at Conn: your own advising team. Why a whole team? You get more support, multiple perspectives and more guidance. Your team will help you throughout your first year and into your second—when your select your major.
Your faculty adviser is the instructor of your first-year seminar. This person will get to know you well and help you in countless ways, especially with your academic vision.
Your staff adviser partners with your first-year seminar instructor. This adviser will assist you with orientation and your schedule, and be your eyes and ears not only to the campus, but also to the larger New London community.
Your student advisers will provide valuable insight into life at Conn. You’ll have at least two student advisers—maybe three. Because they were first-years themselves not so long ago, they know what it’s like to be new here. They’ll escort your class to various events, help you register for classes, and show you the way around the academic landscape. They’ll be there for you all year long and beyond. Grab lunch or coffee, go for a walk, check out an event. They’re eager to help.
Your career adviser will help focus your interests into professional possibilities; connect you to career workshops and networking events with our alumni; and prepare you for internships, job interviews, grad school applications or whatever else lies ahead.
Pathways & Centers
Connections means cohesion. You’ll be deliberately pulling together your intellectual pursuits: your classes, your major, your internship, your projects. You can achieve this through one of our 13 intriguing Integrative Pathways, or through one of our four groundbreaking centers for interdisciplinary scholarship.
Your Pathway or Interdisciplinary Center will enrich your studies by immersing you in a community of scholars. You'll work alongside students, faculty and staff who share the same broad interests as you, but who study them from different—sometimes even radically different—perspectives.
What's Your Question?
At the core of your Connections curriculum will be what we call your "animating question." You will work with your professors and your advisers to develop this question—a question meaningful to you—as you pursue your Pathway. This will help inform and guide your intellectual journey at Conn.
