First Year & Upperclass Transfer Students

The MICA First Year Experience seeks to develop students' ability to think critically and write well. Written expression is a key component of professional development. In order to help you meet the demands of your courses at MICA and beyond, ALL incoming students are registered automatically for the Academic Writing Workshop (L100), a year-long, 3-credit course (1.5 credits each semester).

Students have the opportunity to place out of the workshop, based on an assessment conducted on the second day of orientation. This is not a test, but an opportunity for First Year faculty to get a sense of your ability to analyze and to construct a coherent written argument.

Students who do not place out of the workshop, or who do not attend the assessment, will be scheduled automatically for the course in the fall and spring semesters. The workshop satisfies one of the two academic electives required for graduation.

MICA is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities for the writing assessment. For more information, visit the Learning Resource Center website or contact the Learning Resource Center at 410-225-2416, or via email at LRC@mica.edu.  The LRC advises students to submit requests no later than August 1, 2018, to ensure that the review process is completed before orientation.

Graduate International Students

ESL graduate students (MFA, MA, and Post-Baccalaureate students) attending MICA for the first time are required to take a writing assessment. Testing will take place during Graduate Student Orientation.

The assessment will determine writing skills as well as the ability to adequately answer the writing prompt. After the writings have been evaluated, each student will receive ELL class placement recommendations to be shared with his/her program director and graduate student adviser. Contact Michele Glenn, Graduate ELL Instructor, mglenn@mica.edu, for more information.