First-Year Interest Groups

First-year interest groups (FIGs) are one of the simplest and most comprehensive ways that the university provides first-year students with a small community of friends, colleagues and mentors to help them adjust to campus life.

Why join a FIG?

  • It's a great way to forge a link between your academic and social experiences. When you join a FIG, which any first-year student can do, you’re choosing to take between 2-4 classes in the fall semester together with a “cohort” of no more than 25 other first-years, all of whom are interested in exactly the kinds of classes you are.
  • It makes it easy to form study groups.
  • You'll have regular contact with peer mentors and an advisor from your college.
  • The FIGs are designed to set you on the path to fulfilling your degree requirements.

Why join a Transfer Interest Group (TrIG)?

TriGs are like FIGs except that they're designed to meet the unique needs of students transferring to UT, with an emphasis on the resources that are particularly useful to transfer students and on the kinds of challenges that transfer students face.


Why join a Residential FIG?

When you join a Residential FIG, you not only study with your cohort for the entire year, rather than just the first semester, you're also deciding to living in the same dorm with them and doing community service projects with them. It's a bigger commitment, with greater risks and potentially greater rewards.

How to join a FIG?

  • Be an enrolling first-year student.
  • Review the FIG course listings and choose the FIG right for you.
  • Meet with your academic advisor and tell them you'd like to join a FIG
  • Register for non-residential FIGs during summer orientation.

FIG logo


FIG Office: CRD 23
(512) 232-FIGS
FIG website  

FIG Student Profile
Katie Tran
Katie Tran

"The FIG program really helped me to adjust," says Katie Tran, a Biology major from Pearland Texas.  read more...


Resources

Natural Sciences FIGS
Application form
FIGS brochure