Course Offerings

Summer Academic Institute

Professor Sheldon Solomon
Students are offered one of two levels of writing courses, based on a profile which includes Spring term testing, reviews of high school papers, and the score on the verbal portion of the SAT or ACT.
  • HPC: Language Skills includes both basic grammatical skills and the writing of one- to two-page essays, and carries three credit equivalents.
  • HE 100: Academic Writing focuses on short essays and the use of sources and documentation, and carries three credits.


Two math courses are also offered, and students are selected for these courses based on their high school preparation, Spring term testing, and the math score earned on the SAT or ACT.

  • HPB: Basic Mathematics focuses on basic quantitative skills and carries three credit equivalents.
  • MA 100: Quantitative Reasoning fulfills the first half of the Quantitative Reasoning Requirement and carries three credits.
All students take HPG: Freshman Seminar, a personal skills and transition course, which carries three credit equivalents. They also enroll in HPG:Pre-First Year Seminar/Study Skills Workshop, which carries three credit equivalents and introduces students to the format and the demands of the reading material and classroom settings of the First Year Seminar, the fall seminar required of all first-year students. Dr. Martin Luther King

Dr. Martin Luther King
Letter from Birmingham Jail

Academic Year Courses

All HEOP/AOP students are registered in the summer for their fall courses, which will include the First Year Seminar, offered by the Skidmore faculty, and a writing course. Students who were enrolled in HPC: Language Skills in the summer continue on to take another HEOP course offering, HE 100: Academic Writing (described above).  Those students who took HE 100 in the summer will go on to take EN 103 in the fall from members of the English Department.

All HEOP/AOP first-year students are enrolled in HPF: Study Skills Workshop, a course offered by HEOP/AOP as a continuation of HPG from the summer. The other course credits can lead towards a potential major or towards fulfilling the All-College requirements.

For some second-, third- and fourth-year HEOP/AOP students, the staff offers an informal, non-credit, weekly study skills course, to enable students to work in a concentrated and supportive setting. All other courses are the same as they would be for any non-HEOP student.