First-Year Seminars

Website: www.artsandscience.utoronto.ca/current

The 199Y1 seminars are designed to provide entering undergraduates with the opportunity to work closely with an instructor in a class of no more than twenty-four students. Each Seminar focuses on specific disciplinary or interdisciplinary issues, questions or controversies of particular interest to the instructor, and introduces the students to the excitement of discovery inherent in academic work at the University of Toronto. In addition, students are encouraged to develop their ability to think analytically and to express ideas and logical arguments clearly and coherently, both orally and in writing.

These interactive seminars are not designed as introductory surveys to a discipline or program. Rather, they are intended to stimulate the students' curiosity and provide an opportunity to get to know a member of the professorial staff in a seminar environment during the first year of study. Thus, students are encouraged to experience material and methods that are outside the area in which they will eventually concentrate in order to benefit fully from the scope and diversity of the Faculty of Arts and Science. All 199Y1 seminars are described within the First-Year Handbook that is distributed to every newly admitted first year student.

All 199Y1 seminars have generic designators HUM (HUManities) or SCI (SCIence) or SSC (Social SCience), or INX (INterdisciplinary), according to the disciplinary content of the seminar.

All 199Y1 courses count for degree credit in the same way as any other course. STUDENTS MAY ENROL IN ONLY ONE199Y1 SEMINAR. These courses can under most circumstances fulfill breadth requirements. For details see the Calendar (under Distribution Requirements, page 22), and the First Year Handbook.

See also: First-Year Seminars Handbook

Research Opportunity Program: 299Y1 Courses

Coordinator: Professor K.R. Bartlett, MA Ph D, Victoria College (416-585-4590) and Research Opportunity Program Office (416-978-0359)

Web site: www.artsandscience.utoronto.ca/current

The Research Opportunity Program ("ROP") provides an opportunity for students in their second year (i.e., after completing at least four but not more than nine courses) to earn one 299Y1 course credit by participating in a faculty member's research project.

Descriptions of ROP projects are in the ROP299Y1 Project Binders, which will be available in departmental and college registrars' offices, the ROP Office (Room 1022, Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George Street), and at ASSU and APUS, after Reading Week.

Students wishing to apply for places in the ROP should submit ROP Application forms (available with the ROP Binders) to the ROP Office (Room 1022, Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George Street) by mid March at the latest. Students will be informed in early May whether or not they have been accepted. Successful applicants will be registered in their 299Y1 course by the Program office. The 299Y1 courses begin in September.

A student may accept only one 299Y1 course. Each 299Y1 course will bear the three-letter designator of the department or program sponsoring it, e.g., ANT299Y1, ZOO299Y1, etc. Not all departments or programs will necessarily participate in the ROP each year.

Students will be expected to keep a journal recording meetings, progress, and what was learned about the project in particular and the nature of research in general. Full details of 299Y1 course requirements are in the ROP299Y1 Project Binders. For further information contact the Coordinator.

Independent Experiential Study Program: 398H0/399Y0 Courses

Coordinator: Professor K.R. Bartlett, MA Ph D, Victoria College (416-585-4590) and Program Office (416-978-0359)

A limited number of 398H0/399Y0 courses are available each year. Faculty supervisors propose the projects and choose the students who apply for the projects as they now do for the 299Y1s. They also sign a contract with the successful candidates as with the 299Y1 projects.

Students must normally have completed a minimum of eight FCEs and a maximum of 14.0 FCEs of their studies by the time they begin a 398H0/399Y0 project. The 398H1/399Y1 would be eligible to count towards program completion if the program sponsor (Chair or Director) so chooses. The 398H0/399Y0 would normally have a program-specific designator, such as ANT, CLA, VIC, ZOO, etc.

The projects normally run within the May-August period, when both Faculty and students would be able to make the time commitments necessary. Regular tuition fees apply. The practical, experiential component can take the form of research/learning under the supervision of a faculty member in archives, laboratories, libraries, or in a field camp, etc. - but not in a classroom at another university (that is covered by the Faculty's exchange programs).

Details of individual 398H0/399Y0 projects will be available in the Program office after February 1st each year.