Courses for First-Year Students

Introductory Courses

Introductory courses to a discipline are often restricted to first-year students. These classes vary in size, but because the courses enroll just first-year students, faculty members develop a curriculum that will ease students into the academic demands of college so they can recalibrate their expectations.

First-Year Course (FYC) Program

For those students who are interested in a course with a more intensive approach to transition to college, Hamilton offers a First-Year Course Program. FYCs are a set of courses with low enrollments that aim to provide an opportunity for close interaction and development of strong relationships among students and instructors, and to support students’ transition to and immersion in college academic life. Low enrollments (a maximum of 16-20 students) support the development of strong relationships among students and instructors. Courses with the FYC designation focus on one of the College’s basic competencies: writing, quantitative and symbolic reasoning, and speaking.

FYCs with experiential learning

The Leadership Experience and Preparation (LEAP) First-Year Course incorporates a weekly out of class experiential learning component of approximately 2-3 hours for the students in addition to class meeting times. The experiential component will focus on developing leadership skills with Levitt Center student mentors.