The First Year Experience Program

The First-Year Experience (FYE) (also known as the Freshman-Year Experience or the Freshman Seminar Program) is a program at many American colleges and universities designed to help students prepare for the transition from high school to college. FYE programs often foster the participation of students in co-curricular events such as common reads, concerts, art exhibits, and guest lectures.

Depending on the school, the course can last anywhere from two weeks to a full school year. Some larger universities, such as the University at Albany, SUNY, through their Project Renaissance Program,create a "small college" feel by allowing freshmen to do their first-year courses in one section of the university.

While the origins of the program remain unclear, many people attribute the start of the First-Year Seminar to the University of South Carolina, which houses the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition and holds a series of workshops for colleges and universities to better their own first-year programs.

Originally, Boston College was where the first Freshman Orientation class was offered in the year 1888. Reed College, based in Portland, Oregon, was the first institution to offer a course for credit when, in 1911, they offered a course that was divided into men-only and women-only sections that met for 2 hours per week for the year.

In May 1970, University of South Carolina President Thomas Jones faced campus unrest and violence. In the aftermath he vowed to create a new course designed to "bond students to the institution and transform the way that undergraduate students were taught." In 1972, Carolina introduced "University 101," designed to "improve the educational experiences of first-year college students."

Carolina's program became a model for colleges and universities across the country, and in 1982, representatives from 175 schools came to Carolina to meet about the first-year experience. In 1983, Carolina's University 101 faculty director, John N. Gardner, organized the first Annual Conference on the Freshman Year Experience.

In 1986, Carolina partnered with the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Polytechnic to produce the first International Conference on the First-Year Experience. Also in 1986, Carolina established the National Resource Center; as it broadened its focus it underwent a number of name changes, settling on the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition in 1998. As the Center states on its website:

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