Sophomores

STRUCTURE OF THE SOPHOMORE YEAR

The CSS calendar for next year will be e-mailed to all of you and put up on the CSS webpage when Mickie Dame returns to work in mid-August.  You will also receive a letter outlining the upcoming year in the CSS for your class. You will be given the Tutorial Distribution List that shows students' individual placement into the three Tutorials, and, in addition, the first assignment for the appropriate Tutorial.

The full syllabi for the sophomore courses will be available on the CSS website in August.

Your advisor, now and for the rest of the year (and often for the rest of your time in CSS), is the tutor of your first‑trimester tutorial. Check your portfolio to see to whom you have been assigned.  When you return to campus, you should adjust your course selections for the fall to accommodate membership in the CSS, discussing your schedule with your new advisor and making whatever changes are needed. As you do this, please keep in mind the requirements and other considerations given below.

Choosing Courses for the Sophomore Year

The CSS expects you to take one course outside the CSS in the fall, and two outside courses in the spring.

You have been pre-registered for CSS 271, Sophomore Colloquium, and will need to enroll in the first trimester CSS tutorial for which you will have been assigned in August. You will add this tutorial during the fall Drop/Add period. You will be enrolled in the remaining two tutorials  automatically during spring pre-registration in early November, even though you will actually begin the second tutorial later in the fall semester.

 Economics.  If you have taken ECON 110 (for which knowledge of calculus is necessary) and received a C+ or better, or ECON 101 and one other ECON course, and received an average of C+ or better (with the two courses averaged together), you have completed the economics requirement.  AP exams in both microeconomics and macroeconomics with scores of 4 or 5 will also meet the requirement, as will an IB exam in economics with a score of 5 or higher.  Otherwise, if you have taken no economics and do not have a year of college-level calculus, enroll in ECON 101 in the fall semester and in a second economics course in the spring semester.  If you have enough calculus, you can take ECON 110, which fulfills the requirement alone.  If you took ECON 101 last year, take a 200-level ECON elective this year, preferably in the fall semester. We will be glad to answer any questions you may have on this topic during the summer by e-mail; you should write to dmoon@wesleyan.edu.

General Education Expectations.  Due to the heavy load of required courses for CSS sophomores, you are not required to fulfill Stage 1 expectations by the end of sophomore year.  But you must satisfy Stage 1 and be on your way toward Stage 2 by the end of the junior year. 

CSS students who have not completed the General Education distribution expectation of Stage 1 by the end of the Sophomore year must, by the start of spring preregistration for fall of the junior year, submit for approval of their advisor and the CSS co-chairs a plan for completing the expectations of both Stage 1 and Stage 2 by graduation.  Before graduation, each student in the College of Social Studies must fulfill the requirements for both Stage 1 and Stage 2.

GENERAL NOTES

Grades.  The sophomore tutorials and colloquium are ungraded; instead you will receive evaluations, both written and oral. At the end of the year there is a comprehensive examination on the material of these courses, graded in the CSS mode (High Distinction, Distinction, Commendable, Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory). This single grade is the only grade to be recorded on the transcript for sophomore year; grades for courses taken outside the CSS will not appear on the transcript.

Your three outside courses will be converted to pass/fail (CR/U). This reduces stress in the sophomore year while encouraging you to explore new subjects and take challenging courses across the curriculum. During Drop/Ad in the fall and preregistration for the spring, you must choose the A-F mode of grading (unless the course is only offered CR/U) for your outside classes. You will then request a conversion of the letter grade to CR/U from the instructor using the Request for CR/U Grade Conversion form, which must be signed by the instructor and received by the CSS office before the end of Drop/Add. This allows the Registrar to convert the letter grade to CR/U on your transcript. Failure to submit this form for any outside class will result in the course being dropped from your registration, and you will receive no credit.

Absences and late papers.  Sophomores must attend all tutorials and bring with them a completed paper. Likewise, they must attend every session of the colloquium and submit its assignments when due. Absence from classes undermines a common learning experience, and failure to finish papers on time breaks the chain of effort and criticism on which the tutorial method depends. Absence from any tutorial or the colloquium for any reason, or failure to complete a paper on time, must be reported to the CSS co-chairs, and the student and will be placed on warning. A second absence or late paper within that tutorial or the colloquium for any reason will result in the student’s being put under review. Depending on the circumstances, a review for failure to attend class can result in separation from the CSS major. A review for late papers initiates late-paper procedures http://www.wesleyan.edu/css/formajors/latepapers.html.

Failure to comply with these procedures or a third late paper during the sophomore year will normally result in separation from the major.

Additional skills.  Students of the social sciences interested in pursuing further research should generally be familiar with the basic quantitative and critical or interpretive techniques used in describing and explaining social phenomena. These skills also provide a solid foundation for senior thesis research.  For these reasons you might consider taking one of the following courses during your program of studies:  ECON 300, GOVT 366, QAC 201, HIST 362, PSYC 200, or SOC 202.  Students may also want to go deeper into the philosophical and historical bases of the social sciences by taking courses in the philosophical classics, and/or in ancient and modern history.

Summer Letter