College Foundations

College Foundations

College Foundations is a four-course curriculum that allows first-year students in the College of Arts and Sciences to jumpstart their education with broad exploration of different disciplines and topics, while gaining rigorous analytical skills that will serve them well in any academic pathway.

College Foundations is built on the understanding that a broad liberal arts education prepares a person to engage a complex world. It is a new and innovative way to fulfill six of the College’s general education requirements with four courses taken in the first year – creating room in a student’s schedule in subsequent years to take more courses that pique their interest.

First-year students for Fall 2026, there is still time to opt in to College Foundations. 

Email [email protected] now to sign up or find out more.

What is unique about College Foundations?

  • The four-course curriculum offers a compelling, curated tour through fundamental approaches and topics that ready students for any academic pathway in the College and structure early exploration
  • Emphasis on discussion, analysis, and careful reasoning
  • A learning community with upperclass student learning assistants and a world-class faculty focused on undergraduate teaching
  • Enriching events and programs, including career exploration and alumni-networking events
  • Students fulfill six of the College’s general education requirements with only four courses

The College Foundations Experience

Hear from current students in the College Foundations program and learn more about their experiences in the Kite and Key courses. 

Courses

The curriculum consists of four first-year courses: a writing-focused course, a first-year seminar designed for students to dive into a topic of interest to them, and a new pair of courses, “Kite” and “Key,” that offer an introduction to data analysis skills and concepts foundational for subsequent study in the humanities and the natural and social sciences. 

Through lectures, seminars, and small-group labs, the Kite and Key courses emphasize navigating through competing claims and observations via careful reasoning and productive dialogue. Across Kite and Key, students engage with exciting themes in history, logic, music, artificial intelligence, anthropology, coding, religion, probability, race and gender, legal studies, data science and much more. 

Only students who join Foundations have access to Kite and Key course enrollment. In addition to Kite and Key, Foundations students have a special registration process that ensures enrollment in one of their top choices of a first-year seminar. 

All four courses focus on critical thinking, careful observation and analysis, and intensive discussion on core questions of purpose, knowledge, and meaning that have driven human curiosity over the ages.

College Foundations Faculty Share their View on Kite and Key

Featured in a recent College Voices podcast episode, professors Kevin Platt and Masao Sacco, who developed the Kite and Key courses as part of the "College Foundations" program, share their experience in joining the conversation with other university members in the evolution and future of liberal arts education at Penn.

Community

Students who enroll in Foundations join a close-knit learning community across a broad spectrum of College students, upperclass student learning assistants, and dynamic world-class faculty focused on undergraduate teaching. Together, students learn and connect through lectures, seminars, and small-group labs, as well as socials, colloquia, career mentoring events, and other special programs. Foundations offers a chance to learn with and from students of wide-ranging backgrounds and academic interests, and form a close-knit cohort within the larger body of first-years in the College and at Penn.

College Requirements 

There are no extra requirements and no prerequisites for students participating in the Foundations Program. The curriculum consists of a four-course sequence that counts for six general education requirements, making it an efficient way of approaching distribution.

The curriculum is a good choice both for students who are undecided about majors or careers and for those interested in a specific track, like medicine, law, the teaching professions, graduate study, non-profit work, or industry. It will prepare a person for any field that requires independent thinking, advanced analytical skills, and the ability to manage complex problems and learn from different viewpoints. 

Those engaging in dual degree programs or a few other especially highly demanding programs should speak with the College Office.

Details for Members of the 2026-27 Cohort

Students participating in the College Foundations First-Year Curriculum will take the following courses:

  • College Foundations: Kite
  • College Foundations: Key
  • A writing seminar of their choice
  • A first-year seminar of their choice

New in 2026-2027: 

  • All four courses are offered at a variety of times of the day to accommodate a range of student schedules.

  • Foundations students are no longer limited to a particular set of Writing Seminars; they may register for the one they prefer.

Students will receive:

  • A tailored introduction to the College
  • A shared experience with other College Foundations students
  • Priority registration for first-year seminars
  • Socials, colloquia, career mentoring events, including a 1:1 appointment to explore future careers, alumni lunches, and other special programs
  • Support from a peer advisor who also serves as a learning assistant in the Foundations curriculum
  • Fulfillment of 6 general requirements over the first year: Writing, Cultural Diversity in the U.S. or Cross-Cultural Analysis, Interdisciplinary Humanities and Social Science, Formal Reasoning and Analysis or Quantitative Data Analysis, Natural Science Across Disciplines, and one additional sector from a first-year seminar

For the 2026–27 academic year, College Foundations is being offered as a pilot to a cohort of 360 interested students. Due to limited space, the cohort will be formed by random selection from among the students who have signaled interest at the time of admission.  For more information about this program, please contact the College’s Academic Affairs team at [email protected].

Course Descriptions

How can we think about questions at the heart of human experience such as how we should live, who we are obligated to, and why people suffer? What gets to count as knowledge or art, and how can we understand complex transformations of people and groups over time? This course introduces students to some ways that the humanities and qualitative social sciences investigate the past and present of humanity—as well as how we might meet the twists and turns of the future. Through analysis of texts, images, music, objects, and film, Kite touches on areas of inquiry that range across the globe, while honing critical thinking, writing, and speaking skills.

Requirements Fulfilled

  • Cross-Cultural Analysis or Cultural Diversity in the U.S. (Depending on what else you take, this course can count for either requirement.)
  • Interdisciplinary Humanities and Social Sciences

“This course allowed me to find intersections between topics I once regarded as inherently different. It confirmed for me that my various passions may find natural connections, and there is always more to explore. My knowledge is expanding, evolving, and valuable.”

“I really enjoyed the fact that everyone in my seminar became really close, including my peers and I, my professor, and my TA. It allowed me to hear different perspectives than my own and to make new friends. Moreover, it really helped me notice things about the world and my understanding of my goals in the world and at Penn.”

“What I really learned to do over the course of the semester was how to read. A lot of the time, I used to read all of the words of a text, but not really sit with it and think. Many of the texts we read in Kite challenged me to stop and think during my reading process.”

How do we collect, analyze, and interpret data to make sense of the world? Is there a limit to our capacity to understand the physical universe? This course teaches students key concepts and skills important for making evidence-based statements and detecting flawed arguments in the natural sciences and quantitative social sciences. Using probability, statistics, and causal reasoning, with help from hands-on programming, students in Key learn to evaluate the roles of different kinds of evidence, intuition, reason, hypothesis, and interpretation, and examine various uses of quantitative data in the world today. 

Requirements Fulfilled:

  • Formal Reasoning and Analysis or Quantitative Data Analysis (Depending on what else you take, this course can count for either requirement.)
  • Natural Science Across Disciplines 

“The introduction to simple code language and some statistic formulas definitely will play a role in my future studies so it was nice being introduced to it so early on in my academic learning.”

“Great intro class to coding and data science making me want to minor in cs.”

“The course helped reinforce my conceptual and qualitative understanding of data, which will certainly prove useful as a student majoring in political science.”

The Critical Writing Seminar teaches facility, agility, and awareness in writing so students can gauge both their audience and their writing choices. The Critical Writing Seminar is a tried-and-true course required for every Penn undergrad and a wonderful opportunity to meet other first-year students from across the College as well as Wharton, Nursing, and Engineering. Foundations students aim to take their Critical Writing Seminar in their first year.

Requirement Fulfilled:

  • Writing Seminar

"It was a great critical writing course and I gained a lot of experience in the field of writing, especially being a STEM major...I enjoyed all the group projects and the mini assignments to help a better understanding throughout the entire semester. Our teacher was engaging and always had great activities for us to partake in."

"I enjoyed taking this class and found it to be a great way to expand my abilities to write for different genres. The course text was accessible and enjoyable. I especially liked the peer review aspect of the course because I was able to receive valuable feedback from my classmates."

"I enjoyed this writing course more than any of the others I had taken in high school. I like that Penn gives students the ability to choose what content they want to focus on in terms of what they are writing about. I think that I did get more knowledgeable about how to connect with an audience rather than just cater your writing to the person grading the paper. I also think I learned how to more effectively pre-write through this course. Overall, I think it will help with my future writings at Penn."

The First-Year Seminar offers an intellectually engaging entry into one topic, allowing first-years to try out a particular discipline or field through the lens of a theme or context they care about. The College offers a huge array of First-Year Seminars on different fascinating and relevant topics; no two First-Year Seminars are the same. These courses are a popular choice among all first-year students. Foundations students have a special registration process that ensures enrollment in one of their top choices.

Requirement Fulfilled:

  • Varies depending on the seminar chosen.

“The best academic and intellectual experience I had this semester was my first year seminar… [My professor] was super passionate about her job and field of study which made our class very passionate about the topic. The small class made everyone very close, and I was able to make a lot of friends. My professor also helped me learn how to interpret and approach primary sources which was super helpful. It was by far my favorite class last semester, and I am really grateful that I got to take it.”

“I enjoyed my first year seminar because I loved my teacher, and my class had a nice community, so I felt able to participate often, and it definitely made me learn more.” 

Scheduling and Course Selection

There is no application required to join the Foundations Program. Students indicate interest through the applicant portal. Admission to the 2026–27 Foundations cohort is granted by lottery from among incoming students interested in participating.

2026-27 Foundations students receive instructions for fall 2026 registration and should see their Pre-Major Advisor for more information and any questions.

Career Support

Participating in the College Foundations First-Year Curriculum gives students access to special Career Services events and a one-on-one appointment with a career expert in the first year. More information about this will be shared at the start of the semester.