The Freshman Year Experience

FYE The program is designed primarily for undecided students Two-semesters long Student development program

Success for the first-year student Developing Academic Skills Adjusting to College Life Developing Academic & Career Goals

Program Components The Center for Advising and First Year Programs (OASIS), located in the University Center, coordinates the Freshman Year Experience Program. The Freshman Year Experience is a year-long set of courses and projects that focus on helping students achieve excellence in their academics. The major program components of FYE are the VSU 1101 course, a Perspectives course, learning communities, academic advising, tutoring, peer mentors and service-learning.

Learning Communities - Students who participate in FYE are members of a learning community. Each learning community has approximately 25 students. These 25 students are enrolled in a VSU 1101, an English course and a social science course. The major advantage of learning communities is that they contribute to a higher level of student participation in learning. Students in learning communities report greater personal involvement in academic and social activities. They also tend to see faculty and student peers as more welcoming and supportive.

Academic Advising Every student who participates in the Freshman Year Experience is assigned a faculty advisor who is also their VSU 1101 professor. This arrangement allows the student the opportunity to form a close relationship with a VSU faculty member who they see a minimum of twice a week. The FYE advisor provides additional support and assistance while teaching students correct advising processes and procedures. They also provide accurate information on core curriculum requirements and scheduling. This advising format enables students to take an active role in their own advisement. The FYE advisors also explore academic majors and career opportunities with their advisees.

Peer Mentors The FYE program is proud to offer Peer Mentoring for our students. Each section of the FYE VSU 1101 course is assigned a peer mentor. A peer mentor is generally an upper class student who participated in the FYE program at VSU. Peer mentors attend every session of their assigned VSU 1101course. Peer Mentors are experienced, energetic college students who have exhibited success in navigating the academic rigors and co-curricular life of the University and serve as positive role models for incoming freshmen. They are all open, friendly, and supportive people who are genuinely interested in helping students become active, involved, and academically successful individuals at VSU. They function as coaches, friends, and all around positive agents of support to help our FYE freshmen integrate into the academic and social culture of VSU.

Tutoring Our FYE faculty work closely with the Student Success Center to provide free tutoring for our students for many of the core curriculum courses including math, writing, foreign languages, biology, chemistry, computer science, physics, and social sciences. For more information about the Student Success Center please visit

Service-Learning Provides quality education; Increases the relevancy of education to students "living in a real world; Teaches positive values, leadership, citizenship and personal responsibility; Empowers students as learners, teachers, achievers and leaders; Invites students to become members of their new community; Teaches job skills and prepares students for careers after college; Contributes to a university's outreach efforts to the local community, the state and beyond; Increases campus-community collaboration and partnerships and Increases retention