Every fall, a new class of students arrives on campus excited, nervous, and mostly unsure where anything is. What happens in those first few weeks does more than fill a calendar. It shapes whether a student feels like they belong, and whether they come back for year two.

That whole arc has a name in higher education: the First-Year Experience, or FYE.

What is FYE (First-Year Experience)?

FYE, short for First-Year Experience, is the coordinated set of programs a college uses to help new students transition into campus life and succeed academically. It usually spans orientation, welcome week, first-year seminars, academic advising, and peer mentoring. The goal is simple: help first-year students feel connected, find direction, and persist from their first term into their second year.

Notice the word coordinated. It's not a single event. It's a whole first year.

What FYE actually includes

Programs vary by campus, but most first-year experiences pull from the same building blocks:

• Orientation. The first structured introduction to campus, academics, and expectations, usually over the summer or right before classes begin.
• Welcome week. The stretch right after move-in, when students settle in and start making friends.
• First-year seminars. Small courses that teach students how to actually do college: study skills, campus resources, academic integrity.
• Academic advising. Early, intentional guidance so students choose the right classes and stay on track.
• Peer mentoring and belonging programs. Upper-year students and affinity groups who help new students find their people.

Handled well, these pieces feel like one continuous experience rather than a scramble of disconnected obligations.

Why FYE matters for retention

Belonging early is the whole game. Students who connect with people and understand how their campus works in the first few weeks are far more likely to stay enrolled.

Orientation teams see this firsthand. At The New School, associate director of orientation and transition experience Deric Ford designs the first-year program around a research-backed idea his team cites: students who attend one to three events in their first 50 days tend to feel more connected and are less likely to leave. That single idea shapes the whole program, from the opening days through a six-week extended experience.

The point of FYE isn't to check boxes. It's to build the habit of showing up, so a nervous first-year turns into a confident second-year.

What FYE looks like in practice

Real programs make this concrete.

At Saint Leo University, the First Year Experience Office builds new-student communication around where students already are: their phones. Student employee Jessica Weaver has helped champion that mobile-first approach, treating clear, consistent communication as the foundation of a strong first year. You can see how Saint Leo's student champions drive it.

At Coastal Carolina University, associate director for student transition and engagement Natasha Golden rebuilt orientation from the ground up. The stakes are high: more than 70% of her incoming students come from out of state, so for many, orientation is the very first time they set foot on campus. Getting that first impression right is the difference between a student who feels lost and one who feels ready.

And at The New School, the clearest sign the program was working wasn't a metric. It was a shift in the questions students asked. Instead of "I don't know where I need to be or what's going on," the most common question became "Where is Room 301?" Students arrived informed, and they knew what was expected of them. Here's how The New School built that experience.

Where a first-year app fits

One practical challenge runs through all of this: FYE is spread across months, offices, and events, but students live it one moment at a time. A first-year app can hold that together, giving students a single, familiar place for schedules, maps, and updates from orientation through welcome week and into the semester. If that's a gap you're weighing, our approach to higher education lays out how we think about it.

FYE is more than a welcome. Done right, it's the foundation your students stand on for the next four years.

[faq]

Q: What does FYE stand for in college?

A: FYE stands for First-Year Experience. It's the umbrella term for the programs and support a college puts in place to help new students transition into campus life during their first year. That typically includes orientation, welcome week, first-year seminars, academic advising, and peer mentoring. The aim is to help students feel connected, understand how their campus works, and build the momentum they need to persist into their second year.

Q: What is the difference between orientation and FYE?

A: Orientation is one part of the First-Year Experience, not the whole thing. Orientation is the initial, structured introduction to campus, usually over the summer or right before classes begin. FYE is broader. It includes orientation but continues through welcome week, first-year seminars, advising, and belonging programs across the entire first year. Think of orientation as the opening chapter and FYE as the full story of a student's first year.

Q: Why is the First-Year Experience important?

A: The first few weeks shape whether a student feels like they belong, and belonging is closely tied to whether they stay enrolled. Students who connect with people and learn how their campus works early tend to be more engaged and more likely to return for year two. A strong FYE reduces confusion, builds confidence, and turns a nervous newcomer into a student with direction. For institutions, that connection supports retention and persistence.

Q: What are the main components of a First-Year Experience program?

A: Most FYE programs share a few building blocks: orientation to introduce campus and academics, welcome week to help students settle in and make friends, first-year seminars that teach college-level skills and resources, academic advising to keep students on track, and peer mentoring or belonging programs that help students find their community. The exact mix varies by campus, but the goal is consistent: a connected, well-supported first year.

Q: Who runs FYE programs on campus?

A: It varies by institution. Some campuses have a dedicated First Year Experience office, like Saint Leo University. Others fold first-year work into an orientation, transition, and family programs office, as at Coastal Carolina University and The New School. In many cases, the work is shared across student affairs, academic advising, and faculty who teach first-year seminars. The common thread is a team focused on helping new students transition and succeed.

Q: How do colleges measure the success of FYE?

A: Common measures include event attendance, student satisfaction surveys, and, most importantly, retention from the first year to the second. Many orientation teams gather feedback through in-session surveys, then use it to refine which sessions to keep, cut, or expand. Some also track session-level attendance to see which experiences students value most. UNLV, for example, has worked to connect orientation engagement data with first-to-second-year retention.

Q: How does technology support the First-Year Experience?

A: A first-year mobile app gives students one familiar place for schedules, maps, resources, and real-time updates across orientation, welcome week, and the semester. That continuity cuts confusion and the flood of "where do I go" questions, while giving staff a fast way to push changes to every student at once. When the same app follows students through their first year, it reinforces a sense of belonging rather than feeling like a one-time add-on.

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