Explore: Ampersand and First-Year Programs in Arts & Sciences 2025
FIRST-YEAR
AMPERSAND &
programs in ARTS & SCIENCES
Welcome to the College of Arts & Sciences!
We’re thrilled that you are joining us this fall to start your Arts & Sciences journey. The next four years will take you down pathways of academic inquiry to encounter new concepts, compelling ideas, and experiences that will surprise you. You are encouraged to embrace your own unique intellectual trajectory, knowing there is no prescribed path towards an enriching Arts & Sciences education. Whatever steps you choose to take in your first semester of college will lead you in the right direction!
Choosing a path in your first year
Start thinking about where you want to go and what you want to learn by asking yourself: What am I curious about? How do I want to impact the world? What areas would I like to develop skills and knowledge in? What subjects am I eager to learn about that haven’t yet been part of my academic path?
To begin your journey, we invite you to explore First-Year Programs, courses specifically designed for first-year students. These classes will give you a starting point to design your first year. You can choose between:
• Ampersand Programs: interdisciplinary, small classes that span two or more semesters. These classes give you a chance to immediately jump into sustained academic inquiry into a particular topic and can involve fieldwork, research, or international or domestic study travel.
• First-Year Seminars and First-Year Opportunities: onesemester classes reserved for first-year students. These topic-based courses give you the opportunity to explore a new idea in depth in your first or second semester.
• Beyond Boundaries Courses: mid-sized, interdisciplinary courses team-taught by faculty from across the university.
Join a First-Year Program
The sign-up process with priority review begins Monday, May 19, at 12 p.m. (CT). To participate in priority review, please submit your application in the first 24 hours after applications open. Applications will close on Friday, May 23, at 12 p.m. (CT).
Our goal in this sign-up process is to match you with a program you are excited about. Because these classes are unique and tailored for smaller groups, many will fill during the priority review period. More information about the sign-up process is available on our website at artsci.washu.edu/fyp. Ampersand Programs will include a unique application question, which is available on the first-year programs website, so make sure you review and explore the website for more information before the sign-up process starts.
You will need your WashU Key to apply, so please make sure to sign up for your WashU Key. You should have received an email from the University Registrar with instructions on how to set up your WashU Key.
One of the most common questions we get is: How do I choose my other first-year courses? You’ll hear more about this from the College and your four-year advisor during the summer, but the short answer is that all our First-Year Programs are designed to work with your schedule in your first year, regardless of what other classes you eventually register for. We encourage you to be bold and choose a First- Year Program that excites you. We’ll help you figure out the rest!
Plan Your Next Step
Use this space to make notes about the five programs or courses that most stand out to you. Each Ampersand Program will include a unique application question, which is available on the First-Year Programs website, so make sure you review and explore the website for more information at artsci.washu.edu/fyp.
As you explore, look for the following symbols:
Ampersand Programs
50 Years of Hip-Hop
Explore the beats, rhymes, and cultural creativity that started as a local New York City fad and exploded into a global phenomenon. Also, learn about how this genre shaped race in America.
American Stories: Place, Power, and Imagination
If an American landscape could tell a story, what would it say? American Stories is an interdisciplinary approach to reading landscapes from the nineteenth century to today, uncovering untold stories of American places and the people, politics, and power that shaped them.
Biotech Explorers Pathway
Build connections between science, business, technology, and engineering through the science of biotechnology.
Confronting the Past
Grapple with the legacies of historical injustice in St. Louis and around the world, and build a collective understanding of local and global reparative efforts.
Global Citizenship Program
Join a community of students dedicated to discovering our role in the global world by exploring identity, environment, migration, intercultural exchange, and community engagement.
History, Memory, and Representation of the Holocaust
Analyze the history of the Nazi genocide of European Jews and other groups between 1933 and 1945 as well as its representation in a variety of media.
Literary Culture of Modern Ireland and Irish America
Delve into the rich literary history of Ireland and its U.S. diaspora in the context of the political and social history that informed and inspired some of the greatest literary works of the 20th century.
Medicine and Society
Take a deep dive into medical anthropology — the study of human health across culture, time, and location with particular attention paid to cultural, social, political, economic, and ethical dimensions. The course is tailored to work with pre-med requirements.
Ampersand Programs
Mind, Brain, Behavior
Investigate techniques that explain mental abilities in psychology and neuroscience and that illuminate philosophical questions about the nature of the mind, consciousness, and agency.
Pathfinder Fellows in Environmental Leadership
Delve into an integrated study of environmental change at scales from individual sites to neighborhoods, landscapes, nations, and the globe.
People, Planet, Health
Explore the connections between Earth’s changing environment and human health in St. Louis and beyond.
Phage Hunters
Embark on a laboratory experience in a national research project to isolate and analyze bacteriophage that infect actinobacteria.
Rome: The Eternal City?
Explore the history and culture of ancient Rome and learn how the ancient Romans influenced our modern world, for better and for worse.
Safe Asylum: Refugee Politics and Pathways
Examine the global population of forcibly displaced people and the dramatic rupture of mass migration.
Text and Traditions
Study the foundations of knowledge: politics and literature, justice and imagination, activism and reflection.
A&S Classes Reserved for First-Year Students
Feeling curious and ready for adventure but not sure you want to take on a year-long course? There are dozens of one-semester classes reserved for first-year students that cover just about any topic you can imagine from across Arts & Sciences.
Enrollment in these courses is also limited. To join, you’ll participate in the same matching process followed by the Ampersand Programs, with priority review opening on Monday, May 19, at 12 p.m. (CT). During the matching process, you can indicate your preference for a combination of Ampersand and A&S First-Year classes.
A SELECTION OF FIRST-YEAR SEMINARS
Three credit, one-semester, small courses just for first-year students in every discipline!
Exploring the Planets
A Century of Egyptian Cinema
Power and Persuasion: The Courts and Laws of Ancient Athens
Mapping the World: Introduction to Human Geography
The Linguistics of Constructed Languages
Introduction to Problem-Based Learning in Biology
See the full list of courses at artsci.washu.edu/fyp
A SELECTION OF FIRST-YEAR OPPORTUNITIES
1–2 credit courses, these are easy to add to an already full schedule!
Contemporary Issues in Psychology
Molecular Biology of Genetic Disease
Neuroscience Futures 1: How Do We Learn About the Brain?
Introduction to Cutting-Edge Research in Biology
Research and Conservation in Zoos and Botanical Gardens
A SELECTION OF BEYOND BOUNDARIES COURSES
Mid-size classes only for first-year students, co-taught by professors from across WashU!
Religious Freedom in America
The Art of Medicine
Earth’s Future: Causes and Consequences of Global Climate Change Endgame of Entrepreneurship: Leveraging Capitalism for Good When I’m 64: Preparing Ourselves and Society for a Good Long Life
To Sustainability and Beyond: People, Planet, Prosperity (P3)
For more information on Beyond Boundaries courses in the fall, as well as course offerings for Spring 2026, please visit: beyondboundaries.washu.edu.
What Comes Next
Browse through the First-Year Programs website and review your top 3–5 program choices.
Create your WashU Key and WashU email account.
Sign up for a First-Year Program on Monday, May 19.
Receive your First-Year Program placement (early June).
Receive information to plan for your Fall courses and to prepare for meeting with an advisor for registration approval (mid-June).
Meet with an academic advisor to discuss courses for the Fall semester (mid-June through mid-July).
Register for your Fall semester courses (mid-July).
Participate in A&S Orientation activities (August 18–20).
Attend your first day of Fall classes on Monday, August 25!
The Student Transitions and Engagement office will be in touch with more information and other dates and deadlines regarding your first year and move-in. The timeline you see here relates only to A&S academic events.
Ampersand /’amper,sand/ noun
The ampersand, also known as the and sign, is the logogram &, representing the conjunction “and.” It originated as a ligature of the letters et—Latin for “and.”
It’s also the symbol of Arts & Sciences because it’s at the heart of who we are and what we do. We are connecters: we link ideas, practices, and people to produce and disseminate knowledge.
