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Admissions to the Community
The Social Science & Public Affairs Living-Learning Community is a highly competitive program that is available only to first-year FSU students. There are only 38 spaces available within this community, and in the past we have received as many as 500-700 applications per year. To be considered for the community, please follow the steps below. More detail is also available at the FSU Housing Office's "Ready to Apply for a Living-Learning Community?" page and on our Frequently Asked Questions page.
Deadlines
Note that all deadlines on this page are for students applying for the 2008-2009 academic year. Dates for 2009-2010 will be posted when they become known.
- FSU admissions deadlines: Students may apply to FSU throughout the academic year. Applications that have been received will be evaluated for admission in three clusters during the year, with acceptance letters sent out on November 28, February 20, and April 2.
- Living-learning community application deadline: Midnight on Monday, April 14. Please note that you must have been admitted to FSU and made your FSU Housing deposit before you can apply to any FSU living-learning community.
- Living-learning community admission notification: Our admission decisions (invite, alternate list, or decline) will be announced by Friday, April 25. Students who have been accepted or put on the waitlist must respond to us no later than Friday, May 2 in order to keep their spots in the program this fall.
Who Can Apply?
Many potential students are interested in the Social Science & Public Affairs Living-Learning Community, but have questions about who is eligible to apply, and what we consider in evaluating applications. Here are a few guidelines about who is and isn't eligible for the Community:
Who Should Apply:
- Students interested in the social sciences or public/international affairs (Do you enjoy following the news? Do news stories make you angry, intrigued, or even amused? Do they make you want to take action? If so, you have an interest in public affairs and you should consider the Social Science & Public Affairs Living-Learning Community. If you are interested in how the world (or your hometown) works, this program should be a great opportunity for you to learn more and to discuss interesting topics with faculty and other students.)
- Students with any political view (The Community is nonpartisan in nature, and will not attempt to push any particular political agenda or to support any particular political candidate or party. While the makeup of the student body will fluctuate from year to year, our community always has dozens of supporters of both the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as supporters of third parties. We believe that this is a good thing, as a diversity of political views helps produce a livelier political exchange both in the Community's courses and in daily life. The exception is apathy -- if you don't care about politics, public affairs, or international affairs, please do not apply to a program that focuses on these subjects.)
- Students from any ethnic, racial, religious, or other background (As with political views and intended majors, we believe that the Community benefits by having a student body with a broader set of backgrounds and life experiences. Past years have attracted a number of students whose families come from African, Asian/Pacific, European, Latin American, or Native American backgrounds, as well as students who follow just about every imaginable denomination from just about every major religion -- Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and others, as well as atheism and students who do not have any clear religious beliefs. College is a great time to meet people from different backgrounds or beliefs, and a residential learning community is an even better setting for this type of exchange.)
- First-year students only (The Community is only open to students entering their first year of college. If you are a returning FSU student, or you have already attended a different college or university elsewhere, you are not eligible.)
Who Should Not Apply:
- Students who don't care about understanding or impacting the world around them (If you don't care about the theme of this Community, please think about other residential options, such as a different living-learning community that is more in line with your interests. For example, the Bryan Hall living-learning community does not have any specific subject like public affairs; it focuses on creativity and learning, and is open to students with an interest in any field.)
- Students with inflexible schedules (The required colloquium that all students must take in both the fall and spring semesters is taught one evening a week, so all students who wish to be part of the Community must be free to take that course. Also, as part of that course, all participants are required to attend a certain number of activities such as guest speakers. These activities will be held at varying times on varying days, sometimes in the afternoons and sometimes in the evenings, but as part of the course all students must attend a number of these events. Because the course and these events are such central pieces of the Community, we will not waive these requirements for any student, so please do not apply to our program if you will regularly have time commitments that prevent you from meeting the requirements -- and if you do so anyway, be prepared to accept the consequences for your course grade. Note also that if you do not take the required colloquium in both the fall and spring semesters, you are not considered to be meeting the requirements of the Community, and you will not be allowed to continue living in the residence hall.)
- For example, students who are actively involved in intercollegiate athletics may not be able to meet these requirements because of their practice schedules, so if you are planning on playing for one or more of FSU's teams, please think carefully about whether your practice schedules might interfere with our course or activities.
- For example, students who are part of the Music Theater program may be unable to meet these requirements because of rehearsal schedules. We recently had two residents in Music Theater who missed at least half of the meetings of the required course and who were unable to participate in most of the events for the semester because they were both involved in a major FSU stage production that had practices every night for half of the semester.
- For example, students who are heavily involved in fraternities, sororities, ROTC or other military commitments, or other activities with heavy time demands may run into scheduling problems. We have had a number of students in the past who found themselves unable to attend many of our events because they had meetings or other functions with other organizations, leaving them in the awkward situation of having to choose between keeping their commitment to the Social Science & Public Affairs Community and keeping their commitment to the other organization.
- We do not forbid students who have heavy time commitments -- for these or any other reasons -- from joining the Social Science & Public Affairs Living-Learning Community. We will not waive the requirements of attending the course or attending a certain number of the events, though, no matter how noble the cause that occupies so much of your time. If you plan to be involved in activities with heavy time commitments that might conflict with our courses or events, please think very carefully about whether these activities might prevent you from meeting your Community commitments. While it is good for college students to participate in a variety of different activities, it is also important not to overextend yourself to the point where you are unable to keep your commitments to each one.
- Returning college/university students (You are not eligible for our community if you have already been a student at any college or university, whether FSU or elsewhere; this Community is only open to first-year FSU students.)
The Application Process
One thing that we do not consider in Social Science & Public Affairs Community applications is the student's past academic history. FSU has very competitive admissions criteria for first-year students, so any student who is good enough to be admitted to FSU -- based on high school grades, standardized test scores, and so on -- has the necessary academic credentials to be admitted to the Community. What we are looking for instead is something that differentiates applicants from the thousands of other students who are admitted to FSU each year.
Specifically, we are looking for students with a wide range of interests and experiences, but most importantly an interest in the world around them. We evaluate this on the basis of the Community application, which features two short essays. In one, we ask you how our Community can help you achieve your own goals (that is, why do you care about applying to the Social Science & Public Affairs Living-Learning Community?) and how you can contribute to making the Community a better place. We are looking for students who will fit in well with the goals of the program; why should we accept you instead of somebody else, and how would the Community be better because of your presence here? In the other essay, we ask you to describe an important news event that has influenced you. We are looking for students who have a strong interest in the world around them, in order to produce a vibrant community of students who care about similar topics (even if they come from a variety of different backgrounds and perspectives).
Each application is read and evaluated by six different people: the Community director, the program assistant (a graduate student in the social sciences), and four students who are currently members of the Living-Learning Community. Admission decisions are based on all six of these evaluations, which represent a variety of different perspectives and experiences, but which share the common goal of making the Community a better place both now and in the future.
Other Questions
If you have any questions about the application process, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page, which includes answers to a number of frequently asked questions about this process.
Application Timeline
For more information, please see the Office of Housing's guide to applying to a living-learning community.
Students who are admitted to FSU should receive housing information within three weeks of receiving the letter of acceptance.
- Be sure to apply to FSU as early in the year as possible! FSU only makes admissions decisions a few times during the year (for 2008-2009 admissions, on November 28, February 20, and April 2).
Within the housing application, indicate your interest in the Social Science & Public Affairs Living-Learning Community. Information about the Community will then be sent to you by the Housing Office after your completed Housing Agreement and the required deposit have been received.
- Again, try to apply as soon as possible! Be sure to apply to FSU Housing early enough that you can receive your acceptance and the living-learning community information in time to meet our application deadline.
- Be sure to submit the complete application (including both the student information form and the two essays). Incomplete applications -- those that are missing the necessary student information and/or those that do not have both completed essays -- will not be considered for admission. You are responsible for making sure that you have submitted all of the needed materials; given the large number of applications that we receive, we will not notify students if their application is incomplete.
- DO NOT include additional materials beyond the basic application form and your essays! In the past, we have had students mail us up to 10 pages of supporting materials such as resumes, letters of recommendation from high school teachers or family friends, newspaper clippings, and even photographs. We WILL NOT consider any such materials while making our decision, because we do not have comparable information from every other applicant.
- Be sure to complete your online application on or before the deadline, which in 2008 fell on April 14 - Late applications will be considered, but preference will be given to applications received before the deadline.
(4) Wait patiently for notification
The Social Science & Public Affairs Community selecton committee will review all applications, and our admission decisions will be made available through the application website, generally within about two weeks of the application deadline (in 2008, decisions were announced on April 25).
- Students who are accepted in the initial round must respond within about a week (the response deadline was May 2 in 2008) to guarantee their spot in the Community.
- If you were not accepted to the Community in the initial round of admissions, you should update your housing preferences on the University Housing web site, as only program participants are allowed to live in our section of the residence hall.
- If you are on the alternate list and you are still interested in our Community, there is still reason to hope. Some spots will open up as applicants whom we initially accepted turn down our invitations to go to other universities or to other programs at FSU. When this happens, we will offer their positions to students on the waitlist, who will then be able to enter the program if desired. This process of moving up students from the waitlist may occur at any time throughout the summer, so keep up hope! In past years, several dozen students have been able to join the program from the waitlist (although there may be more or less in any given year, and separate waitlists are used for male and female applicants because we have a set number of spaces available for residents of each gender).
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