design their own majors. Lawrence grants Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music degrees, with a double degree possible. Lawrence offers a number of cooperative degree programs in areas such as engineering, health sciences and environmental studies.
All students are required to take First-Year Studies during their first trimester, which introduces students to broad areas of study and provides a common academic experience for the college. Known as Freshman Studies until 2021, the program was established in 1945, and aside from a brief interruption in the mid-1970s it has remained a consistent fixture of the school's liberal arts curriculum. Lawrence's First-Year Studies program focuses on a mixture of Great Books and more contemporary, influential works, which include non-fiction books, fiction books, and various other types of works, such as paintings, photographs, musical recordings, and the periodic table of the elements. Readings are replaced every few years, with the exception of Plato's Republic, which was …
