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First Year
Program
The First year Program provides the foundation for
academic success in general and for success in the Liberal
Studies Program in particular by introducing students to
active learning, university-level inquiry, academic writing,
quantitative reasoning, and student-success skills. The
First year Program consists of four sets of courses and
one co-curricular program:
The Chicago Quarter Courses
In Autumn Quarter, all first year students take a course
that introduces them to some facet of the intellectual resources
of the city, emphasizes DePaul’s roles and mission
in the city, and provides students with opportunities to
connect classroom learning with persons, communities and
institutions in metropolitan Chicago. Students select either
an Explore Chicago or a Discover
Chicago course. Topics vary. Discover Chicago courses
combine classroom work and an intensive “immersion
week.” In either type of course, the faculty instructor
serves as the students’ academic advisor until they
declare a major and are assigned a departmental advisor.
Focal Point Seminars
investigate a significant person,
place, text, idea or event through multiple methodological
or disciplinary perspectives, learning how educated persons
strive to understand topics in increasingly deeper and increasingly
less superficial ways. Courses stress “seminar behavior”-active
learning, through critical questioning, speaking, listing
and discussing; reading and writing extensively about primary
sources and original works. Topics vary. First year students
take one of these seminars, in either the winter or the
spring quarters.
First year Writing Courses
All first year students take at least two first year writing
courses offered by the English Department. Some students
begin with English 101 or 102, which prepare students for
college writing. All students take English 103, a course
about the forms, methods, expectations, and conventions
of writing at the university level, and English 104, a course
about conducting academic research and writing papers that
make defensible arguments and incorporate material from
a variety of sources.
Quantitative Reasoning
is a course designed
to help students become confident and critical users of
quantitative information, developing facility in the use
of spreadsheets (Excel), word processors (Word), email (Telnet),
presentation software (PowerPoint) and the internet (Netscape
or Internet Explorer). They will develop quantitative skills
in estimation, percentage change, proportional reasoning,
scaling, descriptive statistics, and simple mathematical
models (linear and exponential). First year students take
this course unless their program of study requires calculus,
or their placement test indicates readiness for calculus.
The Common Hour
Program
This co-curricular program consists of a series of information
sessions, discussions, activities and workshops designed
to help students make a successful academic, social and
personal transition into the university. The Common Hour
helps first year students develop effective, independent
study habits; understand the diversity that characterizes
the DePaul community; know how to find and use the university’s
resources; and to begin planning their academic and professional
lives as life-long learners. The Common Hour Program occurs
during the Autumn Quarter, and sessions are scheduled as
part of the Discover Chicago and Explore Chicago courses.
Through participation in these components
of the First Year Program, students have the unique opportunity
to begin their university experience with serious and sustained
engagement in many of those qualities of mind most central
to the life of an educated person.
For Explore Chicago
or Discover Chicago: If you transferred in 30 or
more quarter hours of credit, you will substitute domain
electives (from outside your major) for this requirement.
For Focal Point Seminars: If
you transferred in 30 or more quarter hours of credit, you
will substitute domain electives (from outside your major)
for this requirement.
If you placed into Calculus on the University
placement test or if your program of study requires calculus,
then you should not register for Quantitative Reasoning.
In practice students that major in mathematics or a science,
as well as students in the College of Commerce and most
majors in the School of Computer Science, Telecommunications
and Information Systems are not required to complete ISP
120. (Students majoring in Human and Computer Interaction
are required to complete Quantitative Reasoning.)
It is ideal to complete the Discover Chicago/Explore Chicago
and Focal Point Seminar Program in the first year. Ideally,
this also holds true for ENG 103 and ENG 104 courses because
these courses collectively provide a foundation for your
other courses. If necessary, you may delay the Quantitative
Reasoning (ISP 120) course until the beginning of your sophomore
year, but you must successfully complete this course before
taking your scientific inquiry classes.
Sophomore Seminar
on Multiculturalism in the United States
view approved courses
Students are required to take an approved Liberal Studies
course that addresses some dimension of multiculturalism
in the context of the United States. Multiculturalism encompasses
various dimensions of identity, including but not limited
to issues of race and ethnicity, class, gender, language,
religion, sexual orientation, disability as well as nationality.
These issues and their interrelationships regarding the
experiences of individuals and groups are the foci of the
seminars. In addition, courses generally include the examination
of the history of multiculturalism. Students are asked to
develop a critical perspective about the meaning of multiculturalism
and provide an understanding of the historical and/or contemporary
manifestations of inequality. The seminars examine the contributions
of at least three cultural/and or ethnic groups to the ongoing
development of the American experience and American society
and culture. Examples of course titles include: Multicultural
Literacy and the American Autobiography; Multiculturalism
in the U.S.: Latino Perspectives; History of U.S. Women
to 1860; Diversity in the Workplace; and The American Religious
Experience.
Junior Year Experiential
Learning Requirement
view
approved courses
The experiential learning requirement
engages students in the first-hand discovery of knowledge
through observation and participation in activities, most
often in field-based settings outside the classroom. This
observation-based learning is supported by theory-based
information. In these courses, students will search, order,
compare and analyze information which will result in the
discovery of knowledge about issues, problem, ideas, communities,
as well as their personal and intellectual relationship
to the same.
Experiential learning work may take place
in a regularly scheduled course or in an independent study
format. Courses may be offered in a student's major, and
can meet both major field and liberal studies requirements.
Students who complete one course to fulfill both major field
credit and liberal studies credit, will complete an additional
domain elective (from outside the major). The third language
course of the modern language option can fulfill this domain
elective.
The following types
of courses will fulfill the junior year experiential learning
requirement:
Foreign Study: Foreign study
programs emphasize social, political, historical and cultural
understanding through a total immersion in the life and
culture of a foreign country. Although the majority of programs
are completed in one quarter, some foreign study trips range
in duration from two weeks to a complete academic year.
Domestic Study: Domestic study
courses offer students the opportunity to learn more about
the United States in a geographic location outside Chicago.
Community-Based Service Learning:
Service learning courses provide students with the opportunity
to provide service to a community organization or agency
and to reflect upon what they have learned through this
service in class discussions. Information on service learning
opportunities is available through DePaul's Community-Based
Service Learning Center.
Internships: Internship courses
offer students the opportunity to experience and reflect
on the hiring process, work activities, communication and
culture of businesses or organizations. Students who wish
to register for the Liberal Studies Internship (ISP 250)
should first contact the Career Center Internship Office
in advance of the quarter they plan to perform the internship
so preparatory skills for site placement can be obtained.
In addition some colleges and departments offer 200-level
and 300-level internships that will satisfy the experiential
learning requirement.
Individual or group research projects:
These research projects involve extensive field or laboratory
work. The projects are supervised, evaluated and graded
by a faculty member.
The experiential learning component is recommended for the
junior year because much of the learning necessitates foundational
knowledge and the ability to work independently. However,
some students may complete this requirement in the sophomore
or senior year.
Senior Year Capstone
view approved courses
Students are required to take a Liberal
Studies capstone course in their major field during their
senior year. Some Liberal Studies capstone courses may be
offered jointly for students in related majors and fields
of study. These courses provide students with an opportunity
to integrate their major area of study with broader issues
raised in their general education program. The Liberal Studies
capstone experience allows students to see the relationship
between the ideas, perspectives, and substantive areas of
scholarship and creative work within their major field and
those learned through significant aspects of their course
work in the learning domain courses and other courses and
experiences of the Liberal Studies Program.
A liberal studies capstone course can
meet both major field and liberal studies requirements.
Students who complete one course to fulfill both major field
credit and liberal studies credit, will complete an additional
domain elective (from outside the major). The third language
course of the modern language option can fulfill this domain
elective.
Because the course is offered through
the major field department, students must receive a grade
of C- or better in this course.
about
the Learning Domains
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