But Daphne M. Bein '88 says that integrating courses similar to the seminars into the Core would be make the Core more attractive and academically fulfilling.

"I think it would be fantastic if it could be expanded, if they could somehow make seminars part of the Core program," says Bein, who took Khoshbin's Freud seminar. "Far too few people take seminars."

Another factor that may draw students to house seminars is the instructors' real love for the material and for teaching undergraduates, Hastings says. He notes that professors receive no credit with their departments for teaching a seminar and receive no extra pay.

"I feel very strongly that the kind of course we want should not be a teaching load," says Hastings. "It should be a teaching joy."

More than half the seminars are taught by Medical School faculty, a fact Lewis attributes to a desire on the part of those professors to "combine research and teaching."

But Nicholi attributes the undue representation of the Med School to its faculty's particular enjoyment of teaching undergraduates. "People that go into medicine are usually interested in people," he says.

Undergraduates can also be a welcome break for those who normally teach medical students, instructors say.

"These students take the course because they're interested in it. Medical students take biochemistry, which I also teach, by and large because they have to," says Andelot Professor of Biological Chemistry, Emeritus, Claude A. Vilee Jr. who has taught Winthrop 112, "Reproduction, Fertility Control, and Human Welfare," for 10 years.

To some undergraduates, the difference between faculty from the Medical School and the College is unimportant. Many students say the medical faculty sometimes find it hard to adjust to teaching undergraduates.

Some students say they welcomed the opportunity to study with people outside of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Fox Tree says that Khoshbin "brought us over to the Med School one night and showed us around. It was really important to see how the kind of things I'm doing now could be applied to a professional school."

Although some say one reason the seminar system works well is its limited size, many students and instructors agree that the College would do well to have a more extensive house seminar system.

"The houses have enormous resources that could be tapped more effectively if we had a more extensive house seminar system," says Herschbach.

Adds Khoshbin. "The University should pay more attention."