First-Year Experience

Welcome to the First-Year Experience Program

The William Atwell Brown, Jr., and Mary Brown Vacin First-Year Experience (FYE) program focuses on first-year students and their transitions from high school to college. This program is designed to provide support and encouragement from a student's first day of orienation to the final day of the first year at Albion.

The FYE Program focuses on two main areas of transition: academic and social.

Academic Transition:

Through the FYE Program, first-year students are introduced to the liberal arts tradition and the rigors of academic excellence. The FYE Program helps students establish habits of mind and patterns of decision-making that will ensure achieving optimal success through a student's four years at Albion. The two major components of the FYE Program supporting first-year students' academic transition are the First-Year Seminars and the Richard M. Smith Common Reading Experience.

Social Transition:

Since Albion College is a four-year residential college, first-year students are assisted with their social transitions by upper-class resident assistants and Student Affairs staff members. Programming and activities through the first-year living environments will take place through the FYE Residential Program Learning Strategies. The Learning Strategies will address issues such as study skills, time management, wellness, diversity, sustainability, and communication.

Other Components of the First-Year Experience Program:

• Student Orientation, Advising, and Registration (SOAR)
• First-Year Information (F.Y.I.) Fall Orientation Program
• Convocations tied to major themes within the First-Year Seminars
• Academic and Career Planning