The First Year Experience is Linfield’s comprehensive program that integrates new students into college life and prepares them for continued personal and academic success. Our signature first year programs provide hands-on experiences for students to explore campus opportunities and build the skills necessary to thrive at Linfield and beyond.
First Year Experience
Signature First Year Programs
Pre-Orientation Programs: Linfield’s pre-orientation programs provide admitted students opportunities to arrive to campus before the start of Fall semester and get acclimated to campus and academic life.
- Elevate Program
- Linfield Summer Academy
- Themed programs
- Ignite
- iFocus
- WILD
- Athletics
New Student Orientation: New student orientation occurs in the days leading up to the start of fall semester and provides incoming students with everything they need to know to get acclimated and be successful in their first weeks on campus.
- Wildcat welcome
- Convocation
- Acorn Ceremony/ “L” photo
First Semester Seminar: The first semester seminar pairs incoming students with a faculty advisor and peer mentor who will guide them in navigating the academic side of Linfield. Students are paired with a faculty member who serves as their primary academic advisor. This advisor will often also be teaching one of their first semester classes, so students and faculty can build a close working relationship in an academic context. Students will also be meeting weekly with a peer mentor, a fellow Linfield student, who will show them the ropes and how to be successful in the classroom.
Linfield Curriculum/ Inquiry Seminar: The Linfield Curriculum provides the liberal arts foundation of your Linfield education. From science and math to arts and humanities, the Linfield Curriculum prepares you to investigate the world from multiple perspectives and understand the complex interconnections between different modes of inquiry. The Inquiry Seminar (INQS) is essential and most students take the course in their first year. It is designed to explore academic inquiry and college writing through a topic of faculty interest or expertise across a range of academic backgrounds.