Core Requirement
First Year Writing (FYW)
FYW 100 (or FYWP) is required in freshmen year. It introduces students to college-level writing and helps them develop the writing skills needed for success in college courses. Successful completion of the course (a final grade of C or better) will also meet the college's Writing Requirement. Courses are limited to twenty students.
First Year Seminar (FYS)
FYS 100, with sections on a wide variety of topics taught by professors from departments across the college, is required in the first year. Students are encouraged to choose a topic that interests them. Each section is discussion-based, and focused on developing skills in critical thinking, oral communication, research and information literacy, and written communication. FYS 100 is offered only in the fall and spring semesters. Students who enter the College with 24 or more transfer credits are not considered first-year students and are exempt from this requirement. Courses are limited to twenty students.
Representative First Year Seminars
Music and the Social World
Raid the Collections: Making Discoveries in Rhode Island College Collections
Shock Therapy: Drama as Action
Global Perspectives on Health
Cultures Collide: Indians and Europeans in Early North America
Not for Political Junkies Only: Making Sense of the 2020 Presidential Campaign
Language and Gender
Performance in the First Person: This is ME!
Food and Medicine of East Asia
Sex Rights, Sex Wrongs
Philosophy of Mind and Mental Disorder
Mountains of Power and Culture
The Rhetoric of the 2020 Election
You, Inc.: The Business of You
Global Imagination of Korean Media: Meanings and Significance
Languages in U.S. Education: Whose Matter?
Self, Mind, Heart in Eastern Philosophies
‘Tattoos aren't just for sailors anymore’: Men, women, & bodies
Talkies and more: The sociology of cinema through Hollywood
From Europe to the States: humour, friendship, and love through film remakes
Leadership Study Through the Biography
Native American Arts