First Year Residential Experience
The first year of college is an exciting time focused on meeting new friends, exploring academic and career interests, and confronting the challenges of living away from home for the first time. The NIU First Year Residential Experience (FYRE) is an Academic Residential Program designed to support and challenge you as you make a successful transition from high school to college.
- Choose your life's direction.
- Discover which major may be best suited for you.
- Find the career path to the life you hope to lead.
Through your active involvement in First Year Residential Experience, you will learn how to:
- Live in a campus community
Enhance your communication skills as you connect with students from different places and with different interests.
- Learn effectively
Develop and apply the study skills necessary for success in your academic classes.
- Lead others
Explore the many opportunities you have to be an involved member of residence hall or other campus communities.
Enter the First Year Residential Experience:
Join this special program in the Grant Towers and live with many other resident learners who:
- Come from diverse cultural backgrounds.
- Bring a wide range of hopes and goals.
- Arrive with different physical, social, and academic abilities.
- Are beginning a new life in a campus community.
- May still be selecting or confirming an academic major.
- Make mistakes, learn, and grow just like you!
Share the First Year Residential Experience:
Your path to success will be enhanced by:
- Community Advisors
Upper-class students who will develop the community on your residence hall floor.
- Learning Assistants
Student leaders who will provide academic success programming in your residence hall.
- Coaching for Academic Success
Graduate students will help you to develop your study skills through group workshops and presentations.
- Tutoring Center
Peer tutors are available in the evenings for walk-in assistance.
- Information Stations
Full-time staff members will assist you in making connections with campus resources.
- Academic Advising Center Satellite Office
Advisors are available to help you explore majors and develop your academic goals.
- Counseling and Student Development Center Satellite Office
Advisors are available to assist students in coping with issues of a personal nature, adjusting to the demands in a higher education environment, selecting and achieving educational goals, and reducing sources of interference to learning.
Academic Connections:
Residential Freshman Interest Groups (FIGs) enroll a group of residents in a small learning community by linking several general education courses.
- UNIV 101: University Experience is a one credit course designed exclusively for new NIU students.
- CAHC 211: Career Planning is a career development and decision-making course.
Programs and Activities:
- Tours of campus to locate classrooms before classes begin
- First floor meetings
- Academic planning worksheets
- "Ultimate Road Trip" workshop
- Major decisions/exploration programs
- Tutoring resources on campus
- Majors Fair
- Floor programs and field trips
