This project investigates what effects significantly increased student autonomy in a large introductory course has for student learning, learning styles, and future success as well as how this autonomy shapes students' course and academic career choices. The project focuses on Political Science 101, Introduction to Political Theory, in which I try to foster student autonomy by offering multiple, optional paths to satisfy course requirements, by using nonstandard evaluation instruments to leverage students' prior skills and inclinations, and by giving students some choice in how they are graded. The project uses multiple methods, including quantitative comparisons of student college careers, surveys, and interviews. The project contributes to discussions of student motivation, learning and its assessment, self-regulated learning and metacognition, and to questions of how to plan, run, and assess large courses.