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First-Year Advising Program

The First-Year Academic Advising Program is specifically designed to help students with the transition from high school to college. The first year of college is exciting and interesting, but it can also be overwhelming for students who are used to having more guidance and structure in their lives and academic careers. The First-Year Advisors lead small groups of First-Year students through a year-long program that has been developed to help alleviate some of that stress and assist you as you navigate the University of Mary Washington. The program helps you learn what questions to ask and where to go to find the answers.

A First-Year Portfolio is available online in three formats:

  1. Links on the right of this page allow you easy navigation to particular meetings.
  2. The complete online version is also available.
  3. The printer friendly version is also available.

Your First-Year Portfolio contains the schedule for the group meetings, agenda for the meetings, check sheets, lists of important contacts & dates as well as time planning tools. Students will receive a First-Year Advising 2-pocket folder to organize print-outs from the Portfolio, Banner class schedules, grades and other materials that the First-Year Advisors may provide.

There are two ways to create your Academic Portfolio, you can make the Ultimate Guide which involves printing the entire document above or the Essential Guide which has all of the basic documents you should keep during your time at UMW. Follow this link for more information on how to make a portfolio.