First-Year Interest Groups Program
enroll in themed interdisciplinary clusters of UW-Madison classes • small class sizes • dedicated instructors

For advisors

Thank you for helping your students explore and enroll in FIGs. Please follow the steps below to ensure a smooth advising and enrollment process:

  1. Show off the FIGS. — As you meet with students at SOAR, please talk with them about First-Year Interest Groups. Use the catalog on this website to explore and note that some FIGs have yellow tags in their description indicating that these are restricted to specific student advising groups. Only eligible students will be allowed to enroll.
  2. Check open seats. — If a student is interested in a particular FIG and you determine that it is a good fit for them, please consult the real-time advisor dashboard (through our SOAR Wiki page) to determine whether space is currently available. We account for seats differently than SIS and enroll.wisc.edu, so please rely on our open-seats report.
  3. Request a seat. — When a student wants to enroll in a FIG, have them fill out the “Choose your First-Year Interest Group” form during or after their advising session.
  4. Wait lists. — If a FIG is full, students can join its wait list by using the “Choose your First-Year Interest Group” form. FIGs that currently do not have open seats will be marked as “WAITLISTED” within the form. We contact wait-listed students directly when a seat is available for them.
  5. Enroll in classes. —After they are authorized, they will receive an email with detailed enrollment directions.
  6. If you would like to check on a student’s status (e.g, whether they have filled out a “Choose your FIG form” or if they have been authorized for a particular FIG), please look at the list of students under your advising unit’s tab at the bottom of the advisor dashboard.

Thank you for helping students find a good fit in a First-Year Interest Group!

“Choose Your First-Year Interest Group” form

Students use this form to request a seat in their preferred FIG.

FIGs page on the SOAR Wiki (+ open seats report)

Please navigate to the FIGs page on the SOAR wiki to view the current open seats report. This is a real-time sheet showing how many seats for each FIG are still available for students. It will also show how many students are currently waitlisted for a full FIG. Feel free to bookmark it — you’ll use it often.