Seminar Means "a course offered to a small group of advanced students"

Can you think of synonyms that sound even more exclusive or intense or fancy?

"Colloquium" is a very popular synonym for advanced seminars:

"Advanced Colloquium"
/From Boston College:
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/enmgt/stserv/acd/courses/CO/co59300.html

"Exploratory Colloquium"
/From U.C. Santa Barbara:
http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ bazerman/253DistanceEd.html

"Special Colloquium"
/From Yale:
http://sapir.ling.yale.edu/~elf/ethics.html

"Super Colloquium"
/From Cornell:
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/annual_report/96-97/colloqui.htm

"Honors Colloquium"
/From USC:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/ee/Publication/UHandbook/UHColloquium.html

I'm not sure if they sound as fancy as colloquium but here are some
other seminar synonyms:

"Advanced Topics course"
/From University of Wisconsin:
http://www.cs.uwm.edu/classes/cs790/

"Advanced Study Program"
/From UCLA:
http://www.atmos.ucla.edu/geninfo/facprof/cv/bstevens_cv.html

"Special Study Program"
/From University of Melbourne:
http://www.unimelb.edu.au/HB/subjects/116-025.html

"Specialized Study Program"
/From Florida State:
http://international.fsu.edu/college_level/specialized_programs.html

Search terms used: seminar advanced colloquium
://www.google.com/search?q=seminar+advanced+colloquium&btnG=Google+Search&hl=en&client=googlet

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Merriam Webster's Thesaurus ( http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/thesaurus )
offered the following:

CONFERENCE 2, colloquium, colloquy, palaver, rap session

Obviously you're familiar with conference and colloquium, and rap
session is a bit informal...  Here's Merriam Webster's defniition of
palaver:

Main Entry: 1pa·lav·er  
Pronunciation: p&-'la-v&r, -'lä-
Function: noun
Etymology: Portuguese palavra word, speech, from Late Latin parabola
parable, speech
Date: 1735
1 a : a long parley usually between persons of different cultures or
levels of sophistication b : CONFERENCE, DISCUSSION
2 a : idle talk b : misleading or beguiling speech 
( http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary )

I would add symposium to the list. From Merriam Webster's:

Main Entry: sym·po·sium 
Pronunciation: sim-'pO-zE-&m also -zh(E-)&m
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural sym·po·sia  /-zE-&, -zh(E-)&/; or -siums
Etymology: Latin, from Greek symposion, from sympinein to drink
together, from syn- + pinein to drink -- more at POTABLE
Date: 1711
1 a : a convivial party (as after a banquet in ancient Greece) with
music and conversation b : a social gathering at which there is free
interchange of ideas
2 a : a formal meeting at which several specialists deliver short
addresses on a topic or on related topics -- compare COLLOQUIUM b : a
collection of opinions on a subject; especially : one published by a
periodical c : DISCUSSION

Good Luck.

Hi R2,

If you want to get a tad creative and go with a "meeting of the minds"
angle, you could go with "hyperbola" or "parabola."  Of course, it
wouldn't hurt if the advanced students were math majors either.  Both
these terms have crept into the vernacular of esoterica though.

I also wanted to meld "palaver" and "veritas" together for a "speak
the truth" congruency, so I guess that would make it a "palaveritas." 
If you don't find a word you like, I wouldn't feel restricted by a
dictionary.  Management consultants surely don't!

Hope these help as alternative suggestions,
V

Wordsmyth is a wonderful site for exploring language definitions and
usage. Searching on “seminar”
(http://www.wordsmyth.net/templates/wotw/2000.0131/wotw_esl.shtml ) I
was off on a fun journey that suggested the following alternate terms
that could meet your needs for “intense” or “fancy”:

conference, class, clinic, institute, forum, workshop, caucus,
symposium, powwow, round table, conclave, academy

Taking a different tack, I looked at what groups of learners might be
called in variety of settings and came up with:

honors tutorials (http://www.burlcol.edu/a_2.htm) , learning groups
(http://www.buddyproject.org/less/collab/1groups.asp) learning circles
(http://www.learningcircles.org.au/whatis.html), and my favorite --
knowledge pools (http://www.leadershiplearning.org/pools/).

If you enjoy dictionaries check out Dictionaraoke (
http://dictionaraoke.mirrors.gweep.net/ ) It gives an all new
perspective on playing with words.

Enjoy!
czh

DEPENDING ON WHAT IS BEING TAUGHT;

if intense, how about 
LEARN or die!!   [ideal for CIA going to Afghanistan]