Concourse
Concourse is a highly structured and integrated program for freshmen covering the standard core curriculum in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and humanities. The structure of Concourse follows that of the standard curriculum with scheduled lectures, recitations, problem sets and quizzes. Small class size (limited to 60 students) and extensive personal interaction with senior faculty and tutors provide students with the intimate atmosphere of a small school rather while retaining all of the excitement and resources of a large institution like MIT.
For the fall term, 49 freshmen enrolled in Concourse, a 7.5 percent decline from the previous year. Enrollment for spring term was 24, a 60 percent increase from the spring of 2000. For the Independent Activities Period, 13 students registered for Concourse's 12-unit HASS course, 21W.731 Writing and Experience. From the Concourse Program, 59 percent of the students went on to majors in the School of Engineering; 22 percent to majors in the School of Science; six percent to Architecture and Planning; seven percent to the Sloan School of Management; four percent to Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; and two percent remained undesignated.
There were some changes in our curriculum this year. During the fall, 18.01 was replaced with 18.01A/18.02A.
In chemistry, a new experimental syllabus, using a more physical approach with applications to modern biology was adopted. The class 21W.731 Writing and Experience, was offered for the first time over the Independent Activities Period; and, in the spring, 21W.746 Humanistic Perspectives on Medicine.
Future plans include allowing Concourse alumni(ae) to register for HASS and HASS-D courses after their freshman year; and, to develop a program similar to the Burchard Scholars, with regular meetings and retreats with specific academic and intellectual objectives, to be awarded to groups of applicants each year. The support for such a program would be solicited from an external source.
Members of the Concourse faculty for 2000–2001 were: Roberta Brawer, Lecturer, School of Engineering and Anthropology; Dr. Shepard Doeleman, Research Scientist, Haystack Observatory; Dr. John Lewis, Senior Lecturer, Mathematics; Dr. Kevin Rhoads, Lecturer, School of Engineering; Evelyne Robidoux, Lecturer, School of Science; Professor Robert M. Rose, Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Dr. Judah L. Schwartz, Professor Emeritus, School of Engineering; Dr. Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno, Writer-in-Residence, Program in Writing; and Dr. Jeremy Wolfe, Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Sixteen MIT undergraduates in the fall and ten undergraduates in the spring were employed as teaching assistants for recitations, grading, and evening tutorials in chemistry, physics, calculus and differential equations.
The Concourse Program was overseen by Robert M. Rose as director and Ms. Cheryl Butters of the School of Engineering as program coordinator.
More information about Concourse can be found online at http://web.mit.edu/concourse/.