First-Year Interest Groups Program

First-Year Interest Groups (FIGs) are cohorts of twenty first year UW-Madison students who share a common academic interest and take (usually) three fall-semester classes together as a group. Each fall, more than 60 different FIGs are offered on a wide range of subjects. Each FIG is anchored by a small enrollment seminar that is only open to incoming freshmen — who take this class and the other courses in the FIG together as a cohort.

HOW FIGS WORK

Learn more about the classes in a FIG

The main FIG seminar

At the heart of each FIG is the main seminar instructor who develops and leads a class exclusively for you and the other students in your FIG. Your FIG seminar is capped at 20 students and may include outside-the-classroom experiences, like field trips, to help you explore the topic and get to know your classmates.

Linked classes

All of the students in the FIG will take two other classes in addition to the main seminar. These classes are selected to add to your exploration of the FIG topic and to help you fulfill general education or other degree requirements. You will enroll in the same sections of these courses. This allows you to study together and to think about the connections between all of the classes in the FIG.

Small class sizes

Your main seminar will be small. If the linked courses are large lectures, many will have small discussion or lab sections that meet weekly in addition to the lecture. In this case, you will be in the same sections or labs with the other students in your FIG.

title	key_image	fig	key_image_url	random_number
Molecules to Meaning-Making: Frameworks for Understanding Sickness and Health	https://figs.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/24fig35.png	24fig35	Molecules to Meaning-Making: Frameworks for Understanding Sickness and Health	99
Gandhi, King, Mandela: Nonviolence in the World	https://figs.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2020fall21.jpg	24fig20	Gandhi, King, Mandela: Nonviolence in the World	97
Inventing Languages	https://figs.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/24fig27.png	24fig27	Inventing Languages	94
Body, Mind, Spirit, and the Yoga Tradition	https://figs.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2019fall73.jpg	24fig02	Body, Mind, Spirit, and the Yoga Tradition	92
Diversity in Special Education	https://figs.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2019fall13.jpg	24fig08	Diversity in Special Education	91
The Environment, Pollutants, and You	https://figs.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/24fig11.png	24fig11	The Environment, Pollutants, and You	89
Listening to Land: Indigenous Education and Foodways	https://figs.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/2022fig35.jpg	24fig31	Listening to Land: Indigenous Education and Foodways	88
The Periodic Table of Life	https://figs.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2022fig45.jpg	24fig39	The Periodic Table of Life	86
Mapping our Changing World	https://figs.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/23fig34.png	24fig34	Mapping our Changing World	84
Religion and Law	https://figs.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/24fig48.png	24fig48	Religion and Law	81
Hispanic Culture through Literature	https://figs.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/24fig24.png	24fig24	Hispanic Culture through Literature	79
Climate Change and People: Past and Present	https://figs.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/24fig05.png	24fig05	Climate Change and People: Past and Present	76

WHY STUDENTS CHOOSE FIGS

Learn more about how you can choose a FIG

🔦

Extra attention

You’ll have the dedicated attention of an instructor who really gets to know all of the students in the small main FIG seminar.

🤝

Make friends

Going to class and studying together, you’ll get to know other new students who share your interests.

📚

Deep learning

Integrating ideas from different courses will help you learn in a more holistic way.

🏆

Proven popularity

Every fall, over 1,000 UW freshmen enroll in a FIG. Participants overwhelmingly say that their FIG was a great experience.