College Foundations First-Year Curriculum

College Foundations is a curriculum for the first year at the College that explores the big questions that drive human curiosity and prepares students for any future course of study by developing foundational skills and opening new paths of discovery.

The curriculum consists of four courses: a writing-focused course, a first-year seminar designed for students to dive into a topic of interest to them, and a new pair of courses, “Kite” and “Key,” that offer deep and comprehensive exploration in the humanities and the natural and social sciences. All four courses focus on close reading, careful observation and analysis, and intensive discussion on core questions of purpose and meaning that have driven human curiosity over the ages.

College Foundations is built on the understanding that a broad liberal arts education prepares a person to engage the world and make a distinctive impact. Students will get specialized advising on summer opportunities for internships, research, and service connected to their academic and career interests. It is also a new and innovative way to fulfill a portion of the College’s general education requirements.

The curriculum is a good choice both for students who are undecided about majors or careers and for those interested in a specific track, like medicine, law, the teaching professions, graduate study, non-profit work, or industry. It will prepare a person for any field that requires independent thinking, advanced analytical skills, and the ability to manage complex problems and learn from different viewpoints.

For more information about this program, please contact the College’s Academic Affairs team at sas-academic-affairs@sas.upenn.edu.

    Details for Members of the 2025-26 Cohort

    Students participating in the College Foundations First-Year Curriculum will take the following courses:

    • College Foundations: Kite
    • College Foundations: Key
    • A writing seminar from a set of options
    • A first-year seminar of their choice

    They will receive:

    • A tailored introduction to the College
    • A shared experience with other College Foundations students
    • Priority registration for the writing seminar and first-year seminar of their choice
    • Special sessions with Career Services, including a 1:1 appointment to explore future careers
    • Fulfillment of 6 general requirements over the first year: Writing, Cultural Diversity in the U.S. or Cross-Cultural Analysis, Interdisciplinary Humanities and Social Science, Formal Reasoning and Analysis or Quantitative Data Analysis, Natural Science Across Disciplines, and one additional sector from a first-year seminar
    College Foundations: Kite

    Course Description

    This seminar is focused on key concepts important to the human experience. From our position in a twenty-first-century American university, we will consider together the following questions that people have engaged with throughout the world over time: How should we live, and live together, despite our differences? What gets to count as knowledge and how is it passed on to others? To whom are we connected and obliged in this world, and how do we express those connections and obligations? When bad things happen, how do people find meaning in suffering? What is the role of art and artists in the world? How do we change and transform ourselves and our world over time? Assigned readings, viewings, and listenings, while not comprehensive, will draw from a range of cultural contexts. This course will introduce you to some ways that the humanities and the qualitative social sciences approach the past and present of humanity as well as how we might meet the twists and turns of the future.

    Requirements Fulfilled

    • Cross-Cultural Analysis or Cultural Diversity in the U.S. (This course can count for either requirement.)
    • Interdisciplinary Humanities and Social Science
    College Foundations: Key

    Course Description

    This course will focus on key concepts important for discovery and making quantitative, evidence-based statements about the world in which we live. Students will investigate universal phenomena through the lens of scientific inquiry and data analysis. How do we make sense of the natural and physical world in which we live? How do we, as global citizens, obtain deeper insights into its complexities? What is the role of evidence, intuition, hypothesis, and scientific theories? How do we form sound arguments or detect errors in flawed arguments? How do data play in the modern world? How do we collect, analyze, and interpret data? Is there a limit to our capacity to understand the world? These are questions that humanity has grappled with for millennia, yet they remain critically important today.

    Requirements Fulfilled

    • Formal Reasoning and Analysis or Quantitative Data Analysis (Depending on what else you take, this course can count for either requirement.)
    • Natural Science Across Disciplines 
    Writing Seminar

    Writing seminars are offered on a wide range of topics (options can be found here) and participation in College Foundations ensures that students get seats in the writing seminars of their choice.

    This course fulfills the writing requirement that is required for all students across the university and recommended to be taken in the first year.

    First-Year Seminar

    In first-year seminars students encounter the research interests of faculty in a small setting. Students choose topics of interest to them and learn how cutting-edge research addresses the most pressing questions of that discipline or interdisciplinary study.

    Recent first-year seminar courses are listed here. The list will be updated to Fall 2025 course listings on June 1, 2025.

    All first-year seminars fulfill a sector of knowledge requirement appropriate for their particular topic. Participation in College Foundations ensures that students get seats in the first-year seminars of their choice. 

    Scheduling and Course Selection

    The College has carefully selected times and days for the College Foundations Curriculum courses to ensure that they will fit into the schedules of participants exploring a wide range of majors. All science, social science, and humanities majors can take the College Foundations courses to help fulfill their general requirements and also complete any major.

    In early June 2025, students will be matched with pre-major advisors who are experts in this curriculum and will assist in course selection for the fall semester.

    In October, advisors will assist in selection for spring 2026, so that students can choose the seminars that most interest them and also begin exploring or preparing for specific majors. 

    Career Support

    Participating in the College Foundations First-Year Curriculum gives students access to special Career Services events and a one-on-one appointment with a career expert in the first year. More information about this will be shared at the start of the semester.