Anonymous asked: I'm an incoming freshmen and I'm planning on applying for an LLC. I was wondering, are there many freshmen who live in LLCs?
Historically, first-year students have lived in the Pei dorms (1st Court, 2nd Court & 3rd Court) and built bonds with their fellow first-year students there. Within the past two years, the rules have changed such that first-year students are now living in all of the dorms (including LLCs) in order to encourage bonding between the first years and the rest of the student body; I myself have a first-year roommate. I believe most first years still reside in Pei however.
Congratulations on your acceptance!
You should know that on FB, there’s a group called “NCF Class of 2021″ which you can join to meet your new classmates!
Whoops, didn’t mean to end that quite yet.
As I was saying, Nat Sci students usually write their thesis on a lab experiment that they have done. Some students end up writing their thesis on what’s already known about their topic; this is known as a library thesis. I’m quite nervous about my own thesis at the moment and am feeling the time crunch. Apparently, every thesis student goes through this in the last few weeks but it feels unique to me!
Many New College students do their bacc exams on May 1-3rd, which are known as reading days. All classes are canceled so that the student body may attend baccs (both to learn about their friends’ theses and also to get ideas about what to expect for their own baccs) and so that professors can attend the baccs that they have signed up for. These baccs are open to the public for the first half hour or so, and then everyone is asked to leave so that the baccing student and their professors may have a private conversation about their thesis. This may take up to 2 hours and can range from a friendly conversation about how they might continue their thesis to a more spirited defense.
Not all New College students bacc on bacc days however, the official, final deadline for all baccs and the following edits to be made is May 22nd. For reference, graduation/commencement is on May 26th. Once a person has bacced, they usually (collapse immediately in relief) go on to make edits to their thesis as instructed by their committee members and then print a final copy to be preserved, forever, in the campus library. A permanent reminder that they successfully completed a thesis.
At New College, all graduating students are required to write an undergraduate thesis in their fourth/final year. Students may continue another person’s thesis by focusing on a new aspect, or come up with their own project.
There have been an extraordinary number of theses written by New College students. If you happen to visit our campus, I encourage you to visit the racks and racks of bookshelves that house the final copies and marvel at the sheer number of words written.
All students must, in their third year, choose and persuade 3 professors to be their thesis/ baccalaureate committee, one of which will be their thesis sponsor. The thesis sponsor signs off on the final copy of the thesis. The other two help guide you a bit in the thesis process but primarily appear at the baccalaureate exam (known as a bacc), in which the professors ask you to explain and justify pretty much everything about your thesis. Your thesis sponsor will only let you bacc if they think you will pass this exam.
As I’m a Natural Sciences person, I can’t really tell you much about other divisions’ theses requirements but I can tell you about Nat Sci requirements!
Usually, Nat Sci theses may be started as an Independent Study Project in February of the third year or at the start of the fourth year. Nat Sci theses are usually about 80 pages long and require an experimental/lab work component.
Anonymous asked: Hi so I recently got accepted to New College and I love the school so much but I've been concerned about what the students and staff at the school feel about things like LGBT rights or women's rights and other liberal values. I noticed during the election that county voted for Trump and this just has me concerned that I might be discriminated against because I'm a Hispanic bisexual woman.
The student and staff at New College are unanimously pro-LGBT rights, women’s rights, and other liberal values. This past year, MANY New College students organized and attended the protests against Trump. I recently published an official email from our school president to the entire school to the effect that New College is a school dedicated to preventing discrimination. I am certain that you would not be discriminated against here for any of those qualities.
On the flip side, Sarasota has a LOT of old, conservative people. It’s very much a town for rich old people. This was reflected in Sarasota voting for Trump this past election cycle. We call the campus the “New College Bubble” because the population of the school is so different from our surroundings and because, most of the time, there’s not a lot of reasons to leave campus.
Congratulations on your acceptance into New College. I hope you won’t hold our surroundings against us. :)
At New College, you can design your own class and get college credit for it as a tutorial. To my understanding, you have to have a syllabus already planned and then persuade a professor in that subject area to sponsor it. Tutorials can be a Module long (½ the semester) or a full semester in length. Since students usually open the tutorial that they have planned to other students, this results in lots of interesting courses that you can take!
Some examples of Spring 2017 Tutorials:
Microbiology Tutorial
Graphic Novel Tutorial
Advanced Neurobiology Seminar
Fundamentals of fMRI
Philosophy and the City
Composting Tutorial
Dance for Parkinson
Marine Collecting and Aquarium Science
Organic Gardening
Staging Blackness and Performing Whiteness
Movement Tutorial
AAAAGH, it’s my last semester at New College but there are so many awesome classes/tutorials I haven’t taken yet!!!
http://arcg.is/1NEXMzX
Credit to Orion Morton for making this amazing map of the edible/medicinal plants on campus. If you click on the icons on the map, they’ll give you the name of the plant.
My favorite plants on campus are the Lychee trees but the Mulberry bushes are also really good! I have a fun pic from my second year with my hair all wild, my hand stained completely red with mulberry juice, and my face smiling widely. :D
So one of the neat things that we do at New College is Living Learning Communities (LLCs)! LLCs are intentionally created groups - aka sections of residential dorms - where people commit to following a theme and attending meetings geared around that theme. Traditionally the themes are set by the staff but this year, students at NCF are being invited to create their own!
Requirements:
- A minimum of 4 people in the LLC
- A faculty member to act as the LLC sponsor
- Members are required to attend LLC-specific events
Established LLCs:
- V houses our “LGBTQ Community”
- W hold the “Wellness Community”
- X dorm is our “International Village”
- Y dorm is our “24 Hour - Quiet” - (AYYYYYY, that’s my dorm!)
- Third Court in Pei is our first-year “SUCCESSQUEST” living learning community.
Prospective LLCs this year include:
Sustainability LLC
Green/Environmental LLC
Music and Performance LLC
Spiritual Wellness LLC
Writing/Thesis LLC (This one is probably going to become popular because thesising at New College is infamous for causing people to retreat into their “thesis caves” to write. And write. And write.)
Nihilism LLC (this one is only half a joke)
For those students planning on attending New College - start thinking about what kind of LLC you’d like to live in!
