FIGs are an Autumn Semester Program offered for first-year students during their first semester of college. They make UM seem a little bit smaller. A FIG is a group of students with similar interests who register for the same block of four or five courses. Usually, each FIG has 20 students in it, and these same 20 students take this cluster of courses loosely related by a common theme. In large classes, they mix with other students, some in other FIGs, some not. In classes with smaller enrollments, most of the students in the class will be in the same FIG.
In addition to the regularly scheduled courses that make up the FIG, each FIG includes a one-credit weekly seminar, led by a UM senior, in which students become acquainted with academic life at UM, learn about campus and community activities, and get to know students with similar interests. Time is not necessarily devoted to study sessions within the FIG Seminar, but students are encouraged to form outside study groups. FIG students also complete a project and other assignments that build academic skills.
