UB Discovery Seminar Program

Information for Students

Discovery Seminar Program Overview

The Discovery Seminar Program is a group of seminar course offerings targeted to UB freshmen and sophomores. This program seeks to connect faculty who are excited about a topic and interested in teaching undergraduates with students who want to be engaged in learning.

Benefits of Taking a Discovery Seminar

If you’re interested in kicking back with a faculty member at UB to explore a topic in a low-stress environment, then a Discovery Seminar would be perfect for you. You can also:

• Explore possible majors or minors.
• Learn more about exciting new fields of study and research.
• Get engaged in the academic atmosphere of our research university.
• Meet other students who share your interests.
• Earn 1 credit, which may help students to meet the 15 credit hours per semester required for Dean’s List or the 12 credit hours per semester required for full time status. The credit would also count towards the 120 credits that you need in order to graduate.

Earning Credit

Each seminar earns one-credit hour and meets once a week for 50 minutes (or the equivalent). All courses will encourage active discussion. Students may take more than one seminar and may select graded or satisfactory/unsatisfactory credit. As mentioned above, this credit counts as elective credit towards the 120 credits that students need in order to graduate.

Requirements

The nature of the required activities will be different in each seminar. Usually, attendance and participation in discussions are required, with some preparation for each class. A small project or paper may be required at the end of the semester. In general, since the class is one credit, it should be expected that the class will meet for one hour weekly and there will be approximately two hours of outside work per week.

Choosing a Seminar

Students are encouraged to select a course which complements their major or which takes them in new directions, opening up the opportunity for fresh ideas and new ways of thinking. If students are interested in multiple seminar topics, that’s great! Students can register for more than one seminar per semester.

Registering for a Seminar

Interested freshmen and sophomores should register for the course (UE 141) during their normal registration process. Incoming freshmen should let their academic advisor know of their interest, and their advisor can enroll them when processing their registration.

If a student wants to register for more than one seminar, s/he should use the regular registration process to register for the first seminar, and then send an email requesting registration in the other seminar to vpue@buffalo.edu.

Junior or Senior Participation

This course is a lower-level introductory course meant to introduce students to a new area of study and to provide close instruction with a faculty member here at UB. The seminars are taught at a freshman or sophomore level. Although we do not prohibit upperclassmen from registering in the Discovery Seminar Program, priority is given to freshmen and sophomores. We may be in touch with upperclassmen should their specific section reach capacity with additional freshmen and sophomores interested in the course.

Honors Student Participation

All freshmen and sophomores can participate in the program. If you are an Honors student, please note that these one-credit Discovery Seminars may not be used to fulfill the University Honors College seminar requirement.

Contact Information

If you have questions or concerns about registration, then you should contact your academic advisor. If you have questions about the Discovery Seminar Program itself, feel free to contact us at vpue@buffalo.edu or 716-645-6003.