Be part of First-Year Studies, a signature experience and long-time Lawrence intellectual tradition.

During your first term on campus, you’ll study works across disciplines and mediums in a unifying experience with every first-year student at Lawrence. Through close reading, immersive discussions, and community-wide lectures, First-Year Studies will lay the groundwork for your academic experience to come. Challenging, comprehensive, and deep–be prepared to generate your own light by carefully absorbing some of the brightest texts and ideas in human history.

First Year Studies 2024 Current Works

Text and Beyond

First-Year Studies at Lawrence is more than reading books. From scientific charts to novels to art and music, you’ll learn to think deeply, ask questions about content, and stretch your thinking.

Discover Current Works
Student small group discussion

Small Groups, Big Impact

You’ll share your First-Year Studies experience with a small group of just 15. Professors from different disciplines lead each section—so you might end up examining Gilgamesh with a physics professor or contemporary poetry with a music professor.

Through robust classroom discussion and a combination of formal structured writing and in-class writing, students engage with new ideas and different points of view as they deepen their understanding.

Bell speaking in Lawrence Memorial Chapel

Putting It All Together

Your individual section will have opportunities to gather with the entire first-year class to share ideas not only with each other but also with the Appleton community. Through corresponding events held in Memorial Chapel, listen to experts, or even the works’ creators, offer deeper insights and context about the work and the questions it raises.

8 to 1

Student to Faculty Ratio

Small class sizes mean big opportunities to pursue your passions.

100%

classes taught by faculty

You'll learn, research, and make music with experts.

#1

Liberal Arts College in Wisconsin

Lawrence is consistently recognized as one of the best schools in the state and country.

Written notes along margins of typed text in a creative writing class

The Writing Prize

Each year, one student is chosen to receive the First-Year Studies Writing Prize. You can submit your paper for consideration at the end of each term.

Learn more about the Writing Prize
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Features & Highlights
Academics

Unbagging First-Year Studies

Martyn Smith, director of First-Year Studies, unbags the 10 works being used in First-Year Studies during the 2021-2022 academic year.

First-Year Studies works for the 2021-2022 academic year
Tradition

First-Year Studies

A cornerstone of the Lawrence learning experience for more than 70 years.