First-Year Experience Requirement

The First-Year Experience is an academic course or sequence of courses designed to provide students with the skills that are necessary for success at the College of Charleston. All students who have completed less than one year of college when they enter the College of Charleston must complete a First-Year Seminar (FYSE, FYSG, FYSU), Learning Community (LC), or an Honors College First-Year Experience course during their first year. FYE course descriptions, credit hours and the requirements that each course will satisfy can be found at http://fye.cofc.edu. 

A First-Year Seminar (FYSE, FYSG, FYSU) focuses on topics within or across academic disciplines of study. First-Year Seminars are small courses (generally between 20-25 students), with narrow topics of study, taught by roster faculty members. A Learning Community links two or more courses, often around an interdisciplinary theme or problem. All Learning Communities and First-Year Seminars include a weekly Synthesis Seminar. The Synthesis Seminar includes an hour of discussion and reflection led by a Peer Facilitator who is an upper-level student at the College. Most FYE courses contain social events and class trips that allow FYE students to get to know faculty and peers outside of the classroom. 

Successful completion of the First-Year Experience is a degree requirement. Students required to complete a First-Year Experience must complete it within their first three consecutive academic terms. For students entering in the Fall, the consecutive terms include Fall, Spring and Summer. For students entering in the Spring, the consecutive academic terms include Spring, Summer, and Fall. Once students begin the FYE, they must be continuously enrolled until they have completed the requirement. Failure to complete the requirement in the first two academic terms will result in a registration hold until the requirement is completed in the third academic term. Students who fail to complete the requirement in their first three academic terms must satisfy the requirement by continuously enrolling in a First Year Experience Project class until they successfully pass the course.