As a first-time-in-college (FTIC) student in this major, we want you to feel supported and knowledgeable. We are fortunate to have a wonderful group of trained peer advisors who will be reaching out to you via email multiple times in your first year at UMass Amherst. They will be encouraging you to meet with them in the fall semester, as well as reminding you about required tasks in your first semester. Our peer advisors are juniors and seniors in this major with a wide variety of interests and experiences. Each peer advisor has an assigned number of FTIC students in this major to outreach to and support. If your peer advisor's hours do not work with your schedule, you are welcome to meet with another peer advisor whose office hours work with your schedule. (Additionally, some of you elected to have your peer advisor reach out to you via text message, which means you will receive texts and emails from your assigned peer advisor throughout this first year.)

FTIC Required Tasks for the Fall 2024 Semester:

Meet with your peer advisor, ideally at least two times (one time to meet and connect with one another, the second time to discuss courses for the spring semester)
Review the Spire 101 presentation (you will need to download this in order to watch the videos in the presentation) and take the quiz before you register for spring 2025 courses. This presentation is designed to help you feel knowledgeable, confident, and organized prior to enrolling yourself in spring 2025 classes through SPIRE.

*Failure to do both of these tasks will result in a hold on your account, which will prevent you from registering for spring 2025 classes (until you have completed the required tasks).