Critical Inquiry Skills
Critical Inquiry Skills
I.S. is the culmination of a four-year journey to intellectual independence. And from the day you step on campus as Wooster student, you’ll begin developing the skills and confidence you need to complete that journey
Taking the first step
Every Wooster student takes the First-Year Seminar, a course designed to lay the groundwork for everything to come.
In a class of no more than 15 students, with a professor who’s also your academic adviser, you’ll sharpen your critical faculties and writing ability while tackling such thought-provoking subjects as the intersection of biology, politics, and religion; the professions and social responsibility; the seven deadly sins; or the American bohemia.
Making connections
To ensure that you gain familiarity with the range of human knowledge — and learn to make connections across disciplines — you’ll take two courses in each of the three main academic areas: arts and humanities, history and the social sciences, and mathematical and natural sciences.
Finding your voice
Enlarging on these foundations, you’ll take at least one other writing-intensive course between the First-Year Seminar and your junior year. As you move toward an area of academic concentration, you’ll become grounded in the discourse of your discipline, a language that should be almost second nature by the time you begin your I.S. project.
Research opportunities start early
You can start taking advantage of Wooster’s many research opportunities as early as the second semester of your first year. Then in junior year, you’ll take a semester-long course that introduces you to the specific research methodologies or creative techniques in your major field. In the process, you may well discover a subject you’ll want to explore in your senior I.S. project.