As a first-generation college student, there were a lot of higher education words and phrases I just didn’t understand because I had never been exposed to them. (First-generation college student being one – it means you’re the first in your family to go to college.)
The first higher ed. phrase I came across was the notion of “schools.” When I was doing my research, I kept coming across things like “The School of Business” or “The School of Arts.” I wanted to go to The University of Saint Francis, not The School of Creative Arts. I didn’t understand that the University of Saint Francis, like most other universities, not only split their academics by subject, thy group them into schools.
So, I thought we could spend the next few blog posts going over the five schools at the University of Saint Francis. Today is School of the Week #1.
The School of Arts and Sciences.
When I first started visiting colleges, I kept getting lumped in with the “School of Arts and Sciences,” which I thought was bizarre because I wanted to study German, not art.
Well, it turns out arts doesn’t only mean the art you do with a paint brush. It means humanaties. (Humanities are subjects like English, Theology, History, Sociology and Foreign Language.)
With 27 majors, I could talk about the School of Arts and Sciences for days, but like so many others have found, I believe showing is simply better than telling.
Below is a word compilation from all the School of Arts and Sciences program sheets. Program sheets are unique to each program. Some describe the program’s unique features. Others give an example four-year curriculum guide. All give you resources for contacting USF if you have any questions about program, financial aid, admissions, etc. They’re an excellent resource if you’re thinking about coming to USF.
To create this word compilation, I copied and pasted all of the 27 program sheets into the “Word Cloud Generator” over at Wordle.net. It takes the most repeated words and makes them bigger, based on the number of repetitions. It’s an excellent way to point out themes in writing. In a lot of the writing I do for USF, I say we’re “student-centered,” but it’s awesome when it shows up in data to prove me right.
**UPDATE**
The School of Arts and Sciences now has it’s very own BLOG! Subscribe, add it to your RSS feeds and read it! The school’s dean, Dr. Matt Smith will be updating the blog weekly. Enjoy!
Tags: First Generation College Student, Fort Wayne, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Saint Francis, USF, Wordle
December 8, 2011 at 5:47 pm |
[...] Missed out on what a “school” is? You’re not alone. I was a little lost, too. I talked about it in my first “School of the Week” installment. [...]