Why are there three separate seminars instead of a single year-long course?
Because students take the Dean’s Book Course throughout their college careers, during any one semester nearly half of the Commonwealth College population is studying the same book. Thus students from a whole range of classes and majors are brought together into a single community by the shared experience of reading. As students progress through the three levels, their shared experiences accumulate, and they become united by a common culture despite their separate areas of study. If you were to complete a single 3-credit book course in, say, your freshman or your sophomore year, the community of readers would shrink considerably, from nearly half the College’s population to fewer than twenty percent. What is more, unlike other semester-long courses you’ll take at the University, the Dean’s Book Course is intentionally spread over your time here in order to provide sustained practice in the life-long skills of attentive reading and listening as well as expressive writing and speaking. Ea
