Student Perceptions of the Purpose of First Year Seminars

First Year Seminars (FYS) are an integral part of the First Year Experience (FYE) that is part of many college and university curriculums and degree programs. They are in place to help with retention and help at-risk groups succeed; making them more important than other first semester or year courses (Potts & Schultz, 2008). Paying attention to what students think is important when determining success and efficiency of programs that involve them. However, studies on FYS programs are often lacking in student perceptions. Students often feel that their individual opinion does not matter at the institutional level (Soiferman, 2017). The goal of this project was to determine what students believed the purpose of FYS to be at the University of Wyoming. Surveys were distributed to Fall 2018 FYS students and interviews were held with upperclassmen. Looking at the surveys from the current first year students, their perception of purpose was categorized using key words that were used in the responses. Interview responses were sorted into classes and then categorized using the same key words as the survey responses. Understanding students’ perception of the purpose could help improve FYS at the University of Wyoming.