Ever wonder how to fly fish? Seems like it would be an incredible experience, especially if it counted as three credit hours towards my college degree. Imagine about taking a canoe trip down Hurricane Creek to obtain a biological survey on the diversity of plant and animal life found throughout the area. This would also assist in credit hours. It sounds like a ludicrous idea. Why would the University of Alabama give out credits for anything that doesn’t involve a tedious lecture followed by hours of studying for an exam.
A top-secret organization has been formed! New College is an extraordinary concept. Although, it is an option when selecting courses, the normal incoming freshman students tend to skip over it. Freshman Zach Hval states, "I have never even heard of New College." This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for students to grasp the information that is not readily available.
The New College program is a division of the Arts and Sciences College at the University of Alabama. The main initiative of the program is to provide students with means to utilize several academic disciplines to personalize their college experience with a defined “depth study.” Students of New College work closely with their advisor (who they might see once a week, as opposed to once a semester) to choose the right courses that will benefit the students chosen depth study. Normally, a depth study is composed of 30 to 35 semester hours and includes classes that are taken from any college at the university. Among these classes, five of them are integrative seminars. These assimilate social sciences that cover a majority of current social issues, humanities courses that strive to open communication and nontraditional learning methods amongst students and the world around them, as well as the natural sciences that can include anything from anthropology to physics.
The supreme aspect of New College is the independent study. On the other hand, the fact that New College students have so many opportunities for every kind of internship that could ever possibly be imagined is pretty neat too. Not to mention that the program recently obtained for their students, an EXCLUSIVE student lounge. However, this is off subject, to get back on task... Students who have an idea of what they would like to explore outside of the classroom now have this opportunity. For instance, if instead of taking a specific class one semester, a student may present a contract to their advisor. However, this contract has to be very specific as to what they want to accomplish through this specific study and must give examples of the different resources and materials they will be using. When the objective has been completed, the student’s work will be graded based upon the contract and quality of the independent study. Depending on the difficulty and the specifications of the study, the student may get three complete semester hours (just as if he or she had taken a math or biology class) or the independent studies can be as detailed as to count for an entire semester (12 credit hours.)
Also, the course has given students a chance to explore new options through New College classes provided. The normal math is not in the itinerary. With a chance to learn more than just "speak and repeat," which is the standard way of college teaching, New College allows the student to answer questions in an "out of the box" fashion. The program is based on critical thinking skills, being able to analyze problems, and being able to intuitively figure out concepts instead of by memorizing. It is a wonderful opportunity that is rapidly growing. After reading this, incoming freshman will be able to at least glance over it without pushing it aside because they have no idea what it is.
