First-Year Experience (FYEX)

All first-year students will register for the requirements associated with St. Thomas’s First-Year Experience for fall semester. Check out our First-Year Experience website for additional details!

1) All first-year students must take one course:

FYEX 100, Foundations for College Success (1 credit): Foundations for College Success is a First-Year Experience course designed to provide students with knowledge and skills that will help them succeed at St. Thomas. This one credit course covers a range of topics, including: campus engagement, well-being, academic success, financial literacy, career and vocation, sustainability, global and intercultural competence, and spirituality.

2) All first-year students must participate in a learning community and must choose either a Living Learning Community (LLC) or the Common Good Learning Community (CGLC).

Living Learning Communities

St. Thomas offers a number of living and learning community (LLC) options to incoming first-year students. Live-in Residence Life staff and the instructors who teach the LLC courses will provide programming, one-on-one interactions and co-curricular opportunities to enhance the curricular learning that occurs in the classroom.

The Fall 2024 Living Learning Communities are:

• Aquinas Scholars Honors
• Catholic Studies: Telos
• Economic Tools for Policy and Business
• eMedia
• Emerging Scholars for Justice
• Healthcare Professions
• Helping Professions
• Literary and Digital Storytelling
• Nursing
• Opus Business
• Pathways to Engineering (P2E)
• Psychology and Neuroscience (PAN)
• Science Discover Scholars
• Study of Sport
• Sustainability

For more information please visit the LLC website.

Please note:

• First-year students will confirm their interest in an LLC on the Housing Preference Form.
• In many cases, there are more students interested in an LLC than there are spots available.
• The Academic Counseling team and Residence Life department will jointly determine LLC student placements, as some LLCs required specific placement in certain subjects and not all LLCs are appropriate for all academic majors at St. Thomas.
• LLC courses fulfill requirements in the core curriculum and/or in academic majors. The Academic Counseling team will ensure that students' LLC enrollment aligns with their academic interests and requirements.

Common Good Learning Community

Students who choose the Common Good Learning Community (CGLC) option will be registered for two courses where you have co-curricular connections to build your understanding of the common good. These two courses includes an accompanying 0-credit path (FYEX 150), where students participate in out-of-class experiences related to the common good.

CGLC courses fulfill requirements in the core curriculum and/or in academic majors. The Academic Counseling team will ensure that students' CGLC enrollment aligns with their academic interests and requirements.