Welcome to Freshman Connections

We assume you have come to this page to learn a little bit more about us, beyond that explained on our main webpage.

Recently the Princeton Review highlighted in its "Academics" section the following students' comments about the program: 

What Ball State Students Say About. . . Academics:  "Ball State University's slogan is 'Everything You Need'—and according to many students, it offers just that. 'Ball State University is a caring university that facilitates the needs of diverse learners and provides advantages in technology, courses, and an atmosphere that one won't find in other schools.' A few call BSU 'under-rated'; indeed, its reputation grows each year as more of its top programs gain national recognition. Those programs currently include architecture, telecommunications, journalism, entrepreneurship, and speech pathology; students also tout the criminal justice and education programs, and they feel that 'the school should also be recognized for the areas of study it offers that most other colleges don't offer,' such as its aquatics/SCUBA major. While BSU offers big-school options, it 'has that small college atmosphere. You don't feel like just some ID number in a big sea of students' here. A lot of credit for that goes to the school's innovative Freshman Connections program, which creates smaller communities by placing first-years who live in the same residence halls in many of the same required classes. One undergrad writes, 'The program is wonderful! I met many friends that I still have from that program. When you have a few classes with the same people, it really helps that you know people you can go to for help even if the professors aren't available.' 'Small classes and caring professors' also contribute to BSU's overall 'homey' vibe.  (http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/profiles/studentsSay.asp?listing=1023275&category=5&LTID=1 )

Such notice does not come without much hard work, which our students recognize and appreciate.

The purpose of Freshman Connections is to help new students more quickly and more fully integrate into our learning community.  Our central purpose is learning.  In a recent summary report on student engagement and retention in postsecondary education, "interaction with faculty positively affected reading comprehension, critical thinking, openness to diversity, and internal attribution of academic success, [while] interaction with peers has a positive effect on mathematics knowledge, openness to diversity, learning for self-understanding, and preference for higher-order cognitive tasks."  Specifically, "below-average students . . .  experienced some small additional benefits" from the same interactions, a result that has been shown in research I have completed with other UCC colleagues for the Lumina Foundation.  From the start, Freshman Connections has taken the approach that with increased learning, increased persistence and retention follow.  Certainly this research supports such an approach.

In Fall 2006 the university launched an intensive self-study of first-year programs with the guidance of the Foundations of Excellence program (part of the Policy Center on the First Year of College).  We can improve.  We owe it to our students to improve.  Return to this page throughout the year for updates on that assessment program.

. . . and if you have any questions about the program, do not hesitate to contact us using the link to the left.

Thanks for visiting us.