Types of Freshman Advising
Every MIT student has an advisor. As a first-year student, the Office of Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming (UAAP) is your academic department. We will assign you to a freshman advisor.
The first-year advising options are listed below.
Freshman Advising Seminars (FAS)
A Freshman Advising Seminar (FAS) is a special academic class that combines advising and learning. Your seminar leader not only teaches the 6-unit seminar but also serves as your freshman advisor . This unique combination means that you and your advisor really get to know each other very well as people, not just as teacher and student.
- The main benefit of participating in an FAS is the unique opportunity for an early mentoring relationship with the seminar leader who is a member of MIT's faculty or senior staff.
- The Seminar meets for 2 hours weekly during the Fall Term.
- You earn 6 units of academic credit, but the size, style of learning, and pace are all diametrically different from your other classes: no lectures, quizzes or p-sets.
- Homework generally take 2-4 hours/week.You get a lot of payout for comparatively little effort.
- In addition to the seminar leader, your advising group includes 8 other freshmen wi who share your interest in the seminar topic, and an upperlevel Associate Advisor, who brings the experienced student's perspective.
- Those living in a RBA dorm select from among the special RBA seminars for the given house in which you plan to live (e.g. Maseeh Hall, McCormick Hall and Next House).
- Those participating in the Concourse Learning Community, participate in CC.A10 - the Concourse seminar.
Traditional Advising
Traditional Advising is distinct from Seminar-based advising because you receive no academic credit for participating in a weekly seminar. The quality of advising and the role of the advisor for both is the same.
- Traditional Advising means that you and a group of 4-6 other freshmen are matched with a freshman advisor.
- A Traditional advisor will meet with you 2-3 times in both semesters. (By contrast, FAS leaders see their advisees every week in seminar meetings for the fall term.)
- In Traditional Advising, you have fewer interactions with fellow advisees, although many Traditional Advisors do organize at least a couple of social events a year.
- Traditional advising generally takes up less time because you are not seeing your advisor every week. This frees up space in your schedule for other time-intensive pursuits, e.g., performance groups, varsity sports, student activities, or UROP.
- Students participating in the Terrascope Learning Community, also take the special 9-unit subject Mission 2016, so must elect traditional advising.
