Reliance College

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The University of Michigan has paused a pilot that would have kept first-semester grades off transcripts for first-year students in its College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

The plan was due to start in fall 2027. Students would still have received grades, but those grades would not have counted toward their GPA. The college announced the pause on Sept. 28 (The Michigan Daily).

Why should first-semester grades not count? Tell us what you think.

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

"I think that if you're undecided and weighing the pros and cons, yes, it's a lot of work, but it's a lot of rewarding work."

Izzy Fugazotto came to the Great Connections Summer Seminar from Kansas City, Missouri. She had heard about Socratic seminars at school but had never been to one like this, and it was her dad who told her to go. Her advice to anyone still deciding: bite the bullet. The worst that can happen is you don't like it and you don't come back.

The work she means is the reading, and then a table of people your age who expect you to back up what you say. This year the topic was love, and she says it was eye-opening.

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

"I would say that they should definitely attend. This will be a great experience. You get to make new friends, you get to think on your own, you get to explore Chicago if you haven't seen it before."

Alex came to the Great Connections Summer Seminar from Northern Virginia, partly to be independent in a city he had never been to. Outside class, his week was friends, restaurants and exploring the city. His one note for himself at the end: plan a little more ahead next time.

"Think on your own" is the annual Great Connections Seminar in four words. In every discussion, reason is the only authority, so each student works out an answer and has to defend it.

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

Nineteen students, ages 16 to 24, spent eight days in Chicago this summer arguing about what love is.

They came from Phoenix and Baton Rouge, and from Colombia, Armenia and Australia. They read Aristotle, Emily Dickinson, Mises, Tocqueville and Ortega y Gasset. They watched Jose Ferrer play Cyrano in black and white, and nobody made a sound for the whole film. Seven of them have already said they want to come back next summer and bring their friends.

This is how Reliance College teaches: read hard things, defend your reasoning out loud, and listen well enough to build on what somebody else just said.

More programs are coming, and the next Great Connections Summer Seminar is next summer. Follow along so you hear about them first. Full recap on the blog.

https://t.co/GVv7BWZSSH

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

🔗 👉 Apply to AI Proof U and build the skills no algorithm can automate. https://t.co/ZkRxBNkJgm

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

Joshua Jones came up from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and he graduates in May 2027. He had never attended a program like this one. He wanted a week of people who would argue with him, and he wanted a look at the city he is thinking about moving to after graduation. He got both.

The Great Connections Seminar is a week in Chicago built on Socratic discussion. AI Proof U™ is the same Reliance College method, hard texts and a room of people who push back, and it is the part of your education no software can sit through for you.

Starts October 2. Applications close September 25. Apply today at the link in our comments section.

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

Did you know MIT once required all students -- engineers included -- to study the Great Books?

Tech entrepreneur Ray Stata, founder of Analog Devices, says those philosophy courses shaped his thinking more than any engineering class.
They trained him to reason clearly, lead ethically, and build a billion-dollar company grounded in trust and responsibility.

Today, those humanities courses are gone.

But Stata believes we need them now more than ever -- especially in a world driven by AI and rapid innovation.

📺 Don’t miss Ray Stata’s full interview with Reliance College founder Marsha Familaro Enright—on why philosophy still matters in a tech-driven world. 

https://t.co/4Y1jWCPZzH

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

🔗 👉 Apply to AI Proof U and build the skills no algorithm can automate: https://t.co/ZkRxBNkJgm

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

One week left. Applications for AI Proof U™ close next Friday, September 25.

Pew Research Center found that 52% of U.S. workers are worried about how AI will be used at their job, and only 6% think it will mean more opportunity for them. What separates those two groups is judgment, and judgment is the one thing you cannot prompt your way into.

So the program puts you in a room. You open October 2 with a three-day intensive in Chicago, then six Tuesday night seminars online reading Aristotle, Adam Smith and Viktor Frankl, then back to Chicago on November 13 to present your own work publicly. Ten weeks, $2,500 with monthly payments, professional certificate at the end.

Anyone can generate an answer this year. Very few people can stand up and defend one. AI Proof U™ trains the second thing.

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

🔗 👉 Apply to AI Proof U and build the skills no algorithm can automate: https://t.co/ZkRxBNkJgm

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

"I am taking with me a lot of knowledge, and except for my personal usage, I will take all the experience to the country where I live and I will apply it on the students. I would like to organize such kinds of talks and seminars and to discuss great authors through this Socratic method and maybe to create great connections in my country."

Arpine Ayvazyan is a teacher. She came to Chicago from Hrazdan in Armenia, she has already been through university, and she has students of her own waiting at home, which makes her the one person in the room who had already run a classroom. She spent the week watching how the discussion was run as much as taking part in it.

So this clip is her plan. She wants to hold the same thing in Armenia: great authors, the Socratic method, her own students around the table.

The week she is describing is the Great Connections Seminar. AI Proof U™ is the same Reliance College method, the one she is taking home to run herself.

Starts October 2. Applications close September 25.

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

Hayek's argument against central planning was never about computing power. It was about the nature of knowledge itself.

The knowledge that actually matters in an economy is dispersed, tacit, and tied to particular circumstances. It lives in people, not in datasets.

That's why AI, for all its power, can't solve the knowledge problem. It can automate knowledge. It can't automate judgment.

https://t.co/kAUI1dwegc

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴." – René Descartes

Reading isn’t escape. It’s connection, power, and personal growth.

Which of these books has spoken to you?

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"There's no cons of coming here. I think I've only seen benefits. So if you're nervous about something, you shouldn't be."

Riley McKinley had never studied philosophy before this week. She came because a friend invited her, and that is her answer to the person still deciding.

Riley is talking about the Great Connections Seminar. AI Proof U is the same Reliance College method, hard texts and a room of people who push back, and it is the part of your education no software can sit through for you.

Starts October 2. Applications close September 25.

🔗 👉 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗜 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳 𝗨 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗻𝗼 𝗮𝗹𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗺 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲: https://t.co/MyoeCbFQ5f

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

At the 2026 Great Connections Seminar, students came to each discussion carrying their own questions about the text. In small groups they decided which question most needed an answer. At no point did an instructor say one question was better than another.

Allison Quatrini, who teaches political science at Eckerd College, watched a group work through Mises' "The Anticapitalist Mentality." One of them got stuck on what it would mean to transfer the means of production to the masses. So she asked them "who gets to make the tables?" and a few of them answered at once. "Anyone."

She could have made the connection for them. "They wouldn't have learned anything from it."

This coming spring she rebuilds her own syllabus around Weber, Anderson and Dahl. Her students will do the same work. Read the full story below. 👇👇

https://t.co/3YZYV7zWl9

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

⏳ Applications close September 25.

AI Proof U™ is ten weeks that change how you think. It starts with a three-day intensive in Chicago on October 2, where you'll dig into self-knowledge, leadership, and judgment in an AI-driven world. Then six online seminars, from decision-making to economics to entrepreneurship. Then you come back to Chicago and present your own work.

No lectures to sit through. Socratic dialogue, great texts, and real projects, with a Professional Certificate at the end.

If you've been thinking about it, this is the week to act.

APPLY NOW 👉 https://t.co/izTxbeiake

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

Want that for your own career? AI Proof U trains the same muscle in 10 weeks.

🗓️ Cohort begins October 2 | Chicago and online | Certificate | Ages 18+

Apply to AI Proof U at https://t.co/ZkRxBNkJgm

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

Can one week actually change how you think and how you listen?

Adeline says yes. A rising sophomore at Columbia, she spent the Great Connections Seminar debating Mises over dinner she helped cook, learning from a friend who listened so well it taught her how to listen, and having conversations that required more courage than she usually encounters.

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

Nineteen students came to the 17th Great Connections Summer Seminar at the end of July. Phoenix to Baton Rouge, and Colombia, Armenia and Australia.

It was our largest cohort in some years and the most geographically and intellectually diverse group we have had.

Seven of them have already told us they want to come back next summer and bring their friends.

One theme for the whole week: Reason and Love. Aristotle, Emily Dickinson, Mises, Tocqueville, Ortega y Gasset, and a black and white film from 1950 that nobody expected to like.

More from the week over the next few weeks, including the students in their own words.

[Reliance College @RelianceCollOrg]

Degrees are common. Tools are everywhere. Judgment is rare.

That's the skill AI Proof U™ was built to train. Over ten weeks, you'll reason from first principles through great texts, from Aristotle to The Wealth of Nations, practice making decisions under uncertainty, and learn to communicate them with clarity and persuasion.

The format: a three-day in-person intensive in Chicago (October 2 to 4), six weekly online seminars, and an in-person capstone where you present your own work. You'll finish with a Professional Certificate and something rarer: a trained mind.

The Collaborative Socratic Practice behind the program has produced measured cognitive skill gains of 30 to over 80 percent in longitudinal studies.

🗓️ October cohort starts October 2
⏳ Applications close September 25

APPLY TODAY 👉 https://t.co/izTxbeiake