Benefit for Students - First Year Experience - Western Illinois University

First Year Experience

Students better manage the transition from high school to college.
Students develop an excitement and enthusiasm for learning.
Students develop effective study skills.
Students see the relationship between what they learn in the classroom and the world beyond the university.
Students appreciate that learning extends beyond the classroom and is a lifelong process.
Students gain a heightened appreciation for the relationship between various academic disciplines, and an understanding of how knowledge in one discipline can inform our view of other disciplines.
Students become more successful in their first year, making them more likely to persist to degree completion.
Students and faculty have the opportunity to interact in as least one small-section class each semester of the first year, to facilitate the sorts of relationships and learning activities not often possible in large, introductory classes.
Students are socialized into a community of scholars who prize active learning, civic engagement, and immersion into the world of ideas.