The New School Senior College was established in 1944 as an evening college for adults. Administrators were discussing the desirability of opening a day college for fulltime students from at least the late 1950s. The first fulltime day school was New School College, which operated from around 1966 through 1970 as a two-year college for students who had completed two years of college coursework at other institutions. The college awarded a BA in Humanities or Social Sciences. The Seminar College was established in 1975 or 1976, at first as an expanded program within the Senior College, offering a path for college-age students to earn a BA degree in a fulltime day program. The Seminar College ran until 1985, when it was renamed Eugene Lang College. The Freshman Year Program, which opened in 1972, provided intensive university-level courses to students entering their final year of high school (or recent high school graduates) who would then matriculate elsewhere at the sophomore level. According to New School course catalogs the Freshman Year Program ran until at least 1980."

Most of the files in this series stem from the 1960s, especially the lead-up to 1966, when The New School launched its first undergraduate program for traditional college-age students, and following the establishment of the school. Correspondents include Dean Austill; Elizabeth Coleman (associate dean circa 1965-1972; director, Freshman Year Program and Seminar College, and dean of Undergraduate Studies (circa 1973-1984); faculty members and departmental chairs Leonard Gardner and Merrill Rodin; and Albert Landa (who held various roles, beginning as director of Public Information in 1960 until retiring as vice president of The New School in 1985).