We’re excited that you’ll be part of the first class to experience Transylvania’s August term.
In this three-week term, we will work together to deepen and sharpen your critical, analytical, and interpretative skills while you make new friends and discover new interests. You'll also get oriented to college life; forge a new identity as the class of 2016; work with student leaders, faculty, and staff; learn your way around campus; and explore the Lexington community. In the process, you will earn a full unit of course credit for the First Engagements seminar and enter your first year at Transylvania with even greater confidence.
August term is one component of the First-Year Academic Experience, which prepares students for a successful career at Transylvania.
Move-in day is Friday, August 10.
Orientation events are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, August 11–12.
The First Engagements seminar will start on Monday, August 13, and continue through Thursday, August 30.
You'll have a long Labor Day weekend to participate in optional activities on campus, hang out with friends, or take a break at home.
Fall-term classes will start Tuesday, September 4.
Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–noon: First Engagements seminar.
Monday–Friday, 1–2:30 p.m.: Scheduled special activities, such as watching a film, viewing an art exhibit, listening to a presentation by a faculty member or visiting speaker, or working on a project with other students. You'll also attend orientation sessions on topics like academic integrity, alcohol awareness, sexual assault awareness, and other student life programs.
Monday–Friday, 2:30–5 p.m.: Optional activities that will run the gamut from doing community service in Lexington to hiking at Raven Run. If you're a student-athlete playing a fall sport, this is when you will practice with your team.
Weekends offer opportunities to enjoy excursions to places like Red River Gorge, participate in service projects, and get to know Lexington.
Most late afternoons and evenings are reserved for study time.
What will I study?The theme of this year's First Engagements seminar is Making Sense. A liberal education asks you to make sense of yourself and the world. We want you to explore new ways of thinking and to question everything. We'll ask you to stretch yourself intellectually and creatively in our community—a community of scholars ready to encourage and support you.
Together with 15 other students, a professor, and an August term scholar (an upper-class Transylvania student who will serve as a mentor both in and out of class), you will learn from shared readings and discussions, as well as from novelists, poets, journalists, musicians, and experts in many fields.
Your professor will provide feedback on each of your assignments. At the end of the course, instead of receiving an overall grade, you'll receive either a credit for satisfactory work or no credit for unsatisfactory work. The credit/no credit grading system allows you to experience the expectations of college work without the pressure of making a specific grade.
Your professor in the First Engagements seminar will be your first academic advisor at Transylvania University. She or he will help you become familiar with the curriculum and with what liberal education means at Transylvania. During August term, you will complete your preregistration for courses in fall term with the help of your advisor and your August term scholar.
This is Transylvania University's distinctive experience for entering students. August term is the time for you to focus on making sense of your transition from high school to a liberal arts college. We're confident that August term will provide a strong foundation that will help you succeed at Transylvania, both academically and socially.
Transylvania University admits students regardless of age, race, color, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, national origin, or any other classification protected by federal or state law or local ordinance.
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