First-Year Experience
Source: https://gallatin.nyu.edu/academics/undergraduate/firstyear.html Parent: https://gallatin.nyu.edu/admissions.html?challenge=d06e90d7-4d8f-4b88-9d8c-10b73beb60f1
Your first year of college marks the beginning of a transformative chapter in your life. At Gallatin, you will receive the encouragement, support, and structure to maximize your first-year experience — and enjoy the freedom that Gallatin’s approach to liberal arts education provides.
As you begin to think about crafting your unique academic concentration, the Gallatin First-Year Experience will help you better understand where and how to start; connect you with the resources to facilitate your exploration; and create a community of support and guidance on which you can always rely.
From Orientation events that include interest workshops with fellow first-year students, faculty, and advisers; to first-year seminar courses that welcome you to the journey of individualized, interdisciplinary exploration; to dedicated advising to help you begin to understand and cultivate your concentration, the Gallatin First-Year Experience is your on-ramp to academics, community, and life at Gallatin and NYU.\
Meet the First-Year Experience Team
Director of First-Year Experience: Yevgeniya Traps
First-Year Class Adviser: Jacob Aplaca
First-Year Class Adviser: Charlotte Lindemann
Orientation helps prepare you for success
Your First-Year Experience will begin with a full week of Orientation events designed to welcome you to Gallatin, connect you with your peers and other members of the Gallatin community, and familiarize you with NYU and the surrounding Greenwich Village neighborhood. Orientation also helps lay the groundwork for the start of your academic journey. Interest and information workshops, resource fairs, and advising sessions introduce you to individualized and interdisciplinary exploration within the liberal arts and provide a solid foundation on which you will build your unique path during your four years at Gallatin.
First-Year courses build a strong foundation
Through a series of three first-year courses — a First-Year Interdisciplinary Seminar, a First-Year Writing Seminar, and a First-Year Research Seminar — the First-Year Experience prepares you for the intentional, experiential, and rigorous academic exploration you will undertake at Gallatin. Through these courses, you will practice thinking across subjects, looking for connections that aren’t obvious, asking critical questions, and putting your learning into action in the world around you.
First-Year Interdisciplinary Seminar
The First-Year Interdisciplinary Seminar, which you will take during the fall semester of your first year, introduces you to the goals, methods, and philosophies of a university education — and to Gallatin’s approach to learning within the liberal arts. These classes are kept small to encourage discussion and dialogue between students and professors. Each seminar focuses on a theme that incorporates texts from around the world — and from across disciplines. You also spend time in this seminar discussing the development of an interdisciplinary concentration.
Interested in learning more about the topics and themes that you could explore in a First-Year Interdisciplinary Seminar? Check out the list of seminars being offered in fall 2025!
Fall 2025 First-Year Interdisciplinary Seminars
First-Year Writing Seminar
Taken during the first semester of your first year, the First-Year Writing Seminar is designed to help you develop and strengthen your writing skills, preparing you for the rigorous academic work you’ll undertake in future classes. Each Writing Seminar is organized around a particular theme, with related readings that serve as a springboard for in-class dialogue and as a model for your own writing work. Typically, you begin this seminar by producing personal and descriptive essays before getting to work on a more robust critical essay.
Have a look at the First-Year Writing Seminar courses being offered during the fall 2025 term.
Fall 2025 First-Year Writing Seminars
First-Year Research Seminar
You will take a First-Year Research Seminar during the spring semester of your first year. Similar to the Interdisciplinary and Writing Seminars, each Research Seminar is organized around a theme and incorporates texts from across disciplines and the world. You will spend a significant amount of time in this class developing a substantial research paper, paying special attention to learning and developing key research skills, including: formulating key questions, choosing and evaluating sources, developing a thesis, structuring your argument, and revising and finalizing your work.
Learn more about the First-Year Research Seminars by checking out those that were offered during the spring 2025 term.
Spring 2025 First-Year Research Seminars
Advising enhances your academic experience and fosters community
During your first year, you will participate in a biweekly Advising Section. In the fall, your Advising Section is attached to your First-Year Interdisciplinary Seminar, so you attend these sections along with your seminar classmates. In the spring, it takes the form of a standalone, non-credit course.
Led by a First-Year Class Adviser, these sections provide opportunities to actively reflect on the topics you want to explore and the questions you hope to answer through your concentration. They are a chance to develop a plan for pursuing your interests and representing in your studies the values that matter to you most — all alongside a supportive cohort of like-minded peers who are starting their Gallatin journeys as well. Additionally, Advising Sections feature regular visits from key Gallatin administrators and community members, Gallatin Peer Advisers, and representatives from offices and resources across NYU, including the Wasserman Center for Career Development.