A FIG is a Freshman Interest Group — a way to make friends from day one and get more out of your classes.
How do they work?
FIGs are groups of 15 to 20 first-year students who share the same academic or career interests. Students in a FIG:
- Live together in a residence hall.
- Take three core courses together.
- Take part in a one-credit weekly FIG Proseminar.
- Attend cultural events related to your shared interests.
At the same time, your FIG will put you in touch with both an upperclassman (peer adviser) and a faculty or staff member (faculty or staff mentor) whose work is related to your interests. Peer advisers live in the residence hall with the FIG and provide information about the University in general and about their FIG’s theme in particular. The faculty or staff mentor advises the peer adviser, attends FIG events and serves as a resource for FIG students.
Pick Your Theme
Mizzou’s approximately 100 or so FIGs are organized by themes including:
- Broad fields of study, such as Discovering Science, Exploring Business and Nursing.
- Specific focuses, such as Social Change Through Music and Editorial Journalism.
- Honors groups, such as Humanities, Pre-Medicine and Engineering.
- General learning, like Exploring Majors and Exploring Careers.
More about FIG themes …
Or, you could choose something bigger
A second option: Learning Communities, which are living-learning communities that include freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. Learning Communities are similar to FIGs in that they offer similar opportunities to have interactions with faculty and focus on a particular interest area. However, students don't take classes together.
Sometimes FIGs are a small part of one of Mizzou’s Learning Communities network, but you can choose to live in a Learning Community without being in a FIG. More about Learning Communities … | 
