Imagine sitting in a class with 400 other people, listening to a lecture by one of The University of Iowa's great professors. That class would be bigger than some students' high school, bigger than some students' home town!
Wouldn't it be nice to know that you have 20 other first year students you can talk to about that class?
Courses in Common to the rescue!
Courses in Common is a program that allows students at their first year orientation program to sign up for several classes in common with about 20 other students.
Here's how it works. Let's say you qualify for Rhetoric I (010:001). You would be eligible to choose from 15 combinations of General Education courses anchored to your Rhetoric class, or to a section of The College Transition (407:001). There are ordinarily three courses per combination, including Rhetoric or College Transition.
This means that the students you sign up to go to Rhetoric or College Transition with will also be with you in two other classes, even the one with 400 students in it. Suddenly, the 400-student lecture hall is an adventure among friends!
Students say that Courses in Common helps them to get to know other students more quickly, to feel more comfortable in their classes, to socialize more, and to study together better.
Here are examples of several combinations in this popular program:
Sample Combinations for Courses in Common
10:1 Rhetoric
12:008 Intro to Environmental Science
30:001 Intro to American Politics
10:3 Rhetoric
19:095 Media & Consumers
22S:002 Statistics and Society
407:001 College Transition
12:007 The Age of Dinosaurs
34:001 Intro to Sociology Principles
Two-course Honors Option
4:011 Principles of Chemistry
26:034 Philosophy and the Just Society
57:5 Engineering Problem Solving I
4:11 Principles of Chemistry I
22M:31 Engineering Math I
Click here to see the entire list of Courses in Common options for Fall 2007!
Among the most recent group of students who evaluated their experience in Courses in Common, over 98% said they would recommend Courses in Common to entering first-year students.
Courses in Common is available only to entering first year students, and only when registering through a first year Orientation program during the summer. You must be registered in and stay registered in all of the courses in a combination.
