<p>We just received information in the mail about academic learning communities that are available to freshman. Does anyone have any feedback on how valuable (or not) it is to enroll in one of these learning communities? Thanks!</p>
<p>It depends on the community and what you want. SPACE seems to have good reviews. My daughter lived in the global learning community a couple of years ago because she was very interested in cultures and languages. However, she was a physics major and it was difficult to find people to study with. Most of her suite mates were humanities majors and just didn’t need to study very much, so it was too social for her. Her suite mates seemed to really enjoy each other.</p>
<p>actually these are notthe living learning communities just academic learning communities…anyone know about whether they are worthwhile?</p>
<p>There’s not much benefit in the academic learning communities, at least in my opinion. The class sizes are still large; it’s just that the entire community is in the same class together. The exception, of course, is the Intro to Arts & Sciences class. IAS is a one-credit class that introduces freshman to the various resources the University has to offer (library, academic assistance centers, nearby museums and neighborhoods, etc). I took it freshman year–it was kind of a dumb class but I would recommend it anyway.</p>
<p>You can take IAS without being in a learning community, however. I think one positive to a community would be access to classes that are hard to get into as an underclassmen. For example, I know a pre-med LC offers Morality and Medicine, a high-demand philosophy class that as an incoming junior, I still haven’t been able to get into (the class fills up quickly). On the other hand, I’m pretty sure this same community offers introductory biology. There are many sections of biology, and I would personally prefer not being tied down to a particular section, timeslot, or professor. A class like that can be rough, and I would rather “shop around” for a good professor (using RateMyProfessors as a guide).</p>
<p>A little late, but academically, as someone said earlier, there was no great benefit for me. I enjoyed my learning community because it helped me adjust to college. The class sizes were still large, but the recitation was always just the kids in the LC. Some of my closest friends at Pitt were in my LC. So, socially, it may make it easier, albeit slightly, to adjust to college.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m a Peer Advisor at the School of Arts and Sciences at Pitt, and also an alumnus of an Academic Learning Community. There is a social benefit to the Academic Learning Communities, and there is also an academic one. Pitt is a large university and the class sizes are bigger than most kids coming from high school are used to. If you join an academic learning community you will have three classes with the same group of 19 students. You make friends and also study partners! In a way, being a part of a learning community makes your classes smaller, and more personal, which can help the learning process.</p>