Our goal for the Benjamin Franklin Seminars, a key component of the Benjamin Franklin Scholars program, is to make them the sites of your most interesting and intellectually stimulating experiences at Penn. They are small classes that have fewer than 20 students, are designed to be research-intensive, and predicated on the idea that the students and faculty are jointly pursuing deeper discoveries through discussion and investigation. We hope that these courses will provide an opportunity for you to make intellectual and personal connections to both your peers and to faculty with similar interests to your own. You can find information on the seminars in several places: the CURF website, the Freshman Seminar booklet, and in the seminar section of the Course Timetable.
You must take at least one BFS course during your first year at Penn, both to give you a sense of the classroom style and for us to get a better idea of your academic abilities. You may have semesters in which you take no BFS courses, and others in which you take two or three. Most students find that one or two BFS courses per semester present a healthy challenge, but not an overload. The current record among alums is 15 BFS seminars by graduation; of course, there is no upper limit!
Some BFS courses are introductory courses, appropriate for students interested in a subject in which they have no prior experience; others require substantial bases of knowledge for you to really get something out of the semester. BFS courses can be counted as part of appropriate majors and can satisfy general requirements. In addition, the Engineering, Nursing and Wharton schools require you to take several College courses, and you can use BFS courses to meet these requirements. We would be happy to talk to you on an individual basis about how you might use BFS courses to satisfy your non-BFS requirements. Being a BFS does not guarantee you a space in a BFS course, and some seats are reserved for non-BFS students interested in the subject or in joining BFS. Be careful, though—some classes fill very quickly. To prepare, in Advance Registration, you should list an alternate BFS course that interests you. BFS Courses change from semester to semester, so if one in particular catches your eye, do not expect it to be there next year. The Spring course listing will be available on our web site in early Fall, before the pre-registration period for the spring.