Alpha Program
The Alpha Program matches the University’s most experienced faculty and scholars with first-year students in small, seminar-style classes. Alpha encourages you to challenge yourself academically, to travel into a realm of thought you have previously only imagined, provides occasions to match wits with some of the Loyola faculty’s best minds, and offers a chance to meet other first-year students who share the same passion for learning and knowledge.

Alpha Seminars
Where Reason and Belief Coincide

In Alpha, you’ll discover the vitality of the Catholic educational tradition, which holds that belief and reason are mutually illuminating and the examined life is worth living. A Jesuit education explores the ways in which this ideal affects human culture, and Alpha Seminars represent Jesuit Education at its best. Alpha seminars, which are limited to 16 students, focus on disciplines as wide ranging as theology and business, literature and biology, computer science and fine arts, philosophy and history. Seminar professors will introduce you to their scholarly work, sharing the benefits of careful reading, critical writing, scholastic conversation, and the life of the mind. Outside the classroom, you’ll spend time engaging in cultural excursions designed to complement the seminars and enrich your understanding of the world around you.

Alpha House
A Living-Learning Community Options

Students who choose to live in Alpha House will enroll in one Alpha seminar and will live together in Campion Tower in suite style of traditional style residence hall (double room). These living-learning communities will provide students with an opportunity to share their passion for learning both in and out of the classroom and will create an environment that supports the hallmarks of a Jesuit education where intellectual, social and spiritual pursuits blend seamlessly.  Throughout the year, Alpha faculty members will host programs with Resident Assistants for Alpha House members. Other shared activities will include community service projects, Jesuit values dinner discussions, a theater trip and more!


 
Alpha Seminars
DisciplineTitleCourse ID
BiologyBiology, Evolution, and Human NatureBL115.01 C
Computer ScienceDecoding a Digital WorldCS111.10 C
Engineering ScienceEngineering and Society: Engineering, Design, and Creative Problem Solving in the Built WorldEG103.01 C
EnglishThe Art of ReadingEN101.06 C
Border Crossings: Imaginative SympathyEN101.12 C
Literature and the Search for MeaningEN101.14 C
Reel Life Cycles: Identity and the FamilyEN180.01
Natural and Urban LandscapesEN203.02 C
American Literature and American DreamsEN203.04 C
Fine ArtsDigital Two-Dimension DesignSA224.04 C
Information SystemsVirtual WorldsIS109.01
Law & Social ResponsibilityThe Dynamic ConstitutionLW109.01
Mathematical SciencesStatistics: A Guide to the UnknownST110.02 C
Calculus IMA251.04 C
PhilosophyPractical Wisdom and HappinessPL201.17 C
The Wisdom of the Ancient WorldPL201.21 C
The World between Humanity and DivinityPL201.22 C
Philosophy and the Origins of WonderPL201.25 C
Political SciencePolitical Conversations:Pursing the Common Good in AmericaPS102.03 C
SociologySelf and Society: The Individual in the CommunitySC101D.05 C
Societies and Institutions: Past, Present and FutureSC102D.04 C
Speech-Language PathologyIntroduction to Communication DisordersSP203.02
TheologyTheology and GenerosityTH201.14 C
God and the World:Extraordinary Moments in TimeTH201.16 C
WritingThe Self in Words: Literacy and Identity in Contemporary SocietyWR100D.01 C
Moving the World with Your WordsWR100D.02 C D
Writing in a Diverse and Changing WorldWR100D.10 C D

Core and Diversity Requirements
C - Fulfills a core curriculum requirement
D - Fulfills the Loyola Univeristy Maryland diversity requirement