Freshman and Sophomore Seminars provide an interactive setting in which lower-division students can study a topic of mutual interest with a faculty member. They provide a welcome counterpoint to the more impersonal large-lecture experience.

The seminars can be on any topic of your choosing. Faculty members often take the opportunity to explore a new interest or teach a topic that they might never have the chance to teach in a more traditional setting.

There are three kinds of seminars from which to choose:

The freshman seminars (which usually carry the course number 24) bear one unit of credit and are normally restricted to 15 first-year students. These are generally taught as an overload, in addition to the regular teaching assignment.

The sophomore seminars, numbered 84, can bear one or two units of credit, and they seat 15 second-year students. Again, these are usually taught as an overload.

The freshman and sophomore seminars (usually numbered 39A-Z) can carry from 1.5 to 4 units of credit (depending on the number of hours per week they meet). They generally seat 25 lower-division students. Many of these do count as part of a faculty member's regular teaching assignment.

Senate faculty members teaching a seminar as an overload normally qualify for a $2,000 grant that can be used for expenses related to their teaching or research.

The current semester's seminar offerings are listed on the program's website. Faculty members interested in teaching a seminar should first speak to their department chair and scheduler, then fill in the online faculty participation form. Questions can be addressed to Alix Schwartz, Coordinator of the Freshman and Sophomore Seminars (642-8378, alix@berkeley.edu).

last updated on 3/14/07