Common Intellectual Experiences

Otis College students follow several tracks that guarantee common intellectual experiences.

First-year students have a common core curriculum that provides a solid foundation in studio skills and academic courses and prepares them to enter any major. They also participate in yearlong studio Affinity Sections that emphasize making and thinking skills in relation to specific themes. A spring semester Ways of Knowing course pairs students in two different Liberal Arts and Sciences classes to work on a common theme or topic such as gender that generated a student-curated public exhibition on campus.

Additionally, all Liberal Arts and Sciences courses address one or more common department themes (Creativity, Identity, Diversity, Sustainability and Social Responsibility) that encourage the application of course material beyond the classroom and connects to real world experience.  

Foundation, sophomores, and juniors also take Creative Action courses that focus on pressing environmental and social issues.

Finally, all seniors take a Capstone course and participate in the annual Senior Show.

Honors Foundation students are a year-long learning community. In the photo above, some 2017 students are conferring with Jinger Heffner, the Assistant Director of Galleries and Exhibitions, in preparation for mounting their campus exhibition "Beyond Boundaries," which they produced and curated as part of their Birth of the Modern/Ways of Knowing Class.