First-Year Program

Program Objectives

The First-Year Program at Manhattanville College is a graduation requirement for all undergraduate students entering the College with fewer than 30 approved transfer credits (those entering with 30 or more credits are exempt). Its primary goals are:

To provide students with foundational instruction in critical thinking in a First Year Seminar, which also serves as an introduction to the liberal arts curriculum.

To provide intensive foundational instruction in the mechanics of academic writing, with exercises and assignments relating to the Seminar topic.

To build close faculty/student relationships during the first year.

Program Structure

The First-year Program comprises both the Fall and Spring semesters and includes:

First-Year Seminar (FYP 1001 - 3 credits; generally two 75 – minute meetings per week) or Castle Scholars First-Year Seminar (3 credits)

First-Year Seminars are topical or thematic, reflecting faculty interests and/or expertise. Seminar topics and themes are diverse and reflect the broad spectrum of the undergraduate liberal arts curriculum. First-Year Seminars are not survey or introductory lecture courses in any particular discipline, but rather are seminar-style, participatory and topical. All seminars count towards the fulfillment of college-wide requirements and some may carry departmental credit. Most First Year Seminars fulfill an Inquiry pillar.

First-Year Writing I & II (FYP 1003/1004 - 3 credits each; generally two 75 – minute meetings per week)

Each section of First-Year Writing provides thorough instruction in composition with the aim of enabling students to develop the writing skills necessary for college-level study. The course includes an intensive review of English grammar, as well as academic style and structure; it examines strategies for written analysis, persuasion, and argumentation. Instruction emphasizes revising, editing and drafting skills. In direct coordination with the First-Year Seminar, students learn to recognize connections between critical thinking and successful academic writing.

An introduction to Information Literacy is embedded within the First-Year Writing sequence: this includes library tours, introduction to information resources, and approaches to scholarly research.

By the end of the year-long sequence of Seminar and Writing courses, students are able to:

Demonstrate the ability to write clearly and with grammatical accuracy in English;

Produce written work that has been improved by supervised revision for style and content through multiple drafts and/or sequential assignments;

Engage critically with primary and secondary sources, while following both ethical and formatting guidelines for quoting, paraphrasing and citing this material; and

Employ the vocabulary, concepts and compositional techniques appropriate to the academic discipline(s) reflected in their First Year Seminar topic.