First Year Experience

Your Residential College

Your Residential College helps make a large university feel personal. It is the place where you begin building relationships, connect with academic resources, engage with faculty, and create a sense of home at UM.

Each Residential College brings students together through shared spaces, faculty connections, student leaders, traditions, programs, and opportunities to build pride in where you live. Your college is designed to help you form meaningful connections early, both with the people who live near you and with peers who share parts of your academic journey.

First-year students live in one of UM’s Residential Colleges:

From day one, you will be part of two distinct residential communities: your Residential College Cohort and your floor community.

Your Residential College Cohort

Your Residential College Cohort is made up of peers who are connected through a shared academic school, college, or major. These are students you may see in class, study alongside, and grow with throughout your first year.

The cohort experience is designed to help bring your academic community home. By living near students who are navigating similar courses, interests, and goals, you have more opportunities to form study groups, talk through academic decisions, explore career interests, and build relationships with peers who understand your path.

Your Residential College Cohort is led by a First Year Fellow, an experienced student leader who has already navigated the transition to UM. First Year Fellows bring students together through cohort meetings, programs, conversations, and shared experiences. They also provide individual guidance as peer mentors who can help you think through academic, professional, and personal questions during your first year.

Your Floor Community

You will also be part of a floor community made up of the students who live near you. This community is led by your Resident Assistant, an experienced student leader who helps build community, plan social opportunities, support roommate and neighbor relationships, and create a welcoming living environment.

Your floor community is where many everyday connections begin — from casual conversations and study breaks to floor traditions and lifelong friendships.

Together, your Residential College Cohort and floor community help you find your place at UM, both in the classroom and where you live.

One of the defining features of a Residential College is that a faculty member lives in the community. This creates a unique opportunity for students to get to know faculty outside of the classroom — not only as instructors and scholars, but as approachable mentors, advocates, and members of the residential community.

Residential Faculty are passionate about supporting students through their transition to UM. By living among first-year students, they help make faculty more accessible, create opportunities for informal connection, and contribute to the intellectual life of the Residential Colleges.

Through meals, programs, conversations, mentorship, and community traditions, Residential Faculty help students explore academic interests, ask questions, build confidence, and feel connected to both their Residential College and the broader university.

The first few weeks of college can feel exciting, unfamiliar, and full of possibility. In the Residential Colleges, those first moments are designed to help you find your footing and begin turning a new place into a community.

When you arrive, you will start meeting the people who will shape your day-to-day life at UM: your roommate, neighbors, Resident Assistant, First Year Fellow, Residential Faculty, and other students in your Residential College. Early welcome events, floor meetings, faculty-hosted gatherings, and first-year traditions help you learn about your new home, ask questions, and begin building relationships with the people around you.

As classes begin, your Residential College Cohort helps connect your academic life with your residential experience. You may meet with your First Year Fellow, learn about academic resources, and begin forming relationships with new friends who are navigating similar classes, interests, and goals.

By the end of your first few weeks, your Residential College helps connect all pieces of your UM experience — the people you live with, the courses you are taking, the faculty and student leaders around you, and the community you are beginning to call home.

Academics are at the center of the Residential College experience. Throughout the year, students have opportunities to connect with faculty, peer leaders, academic resources, and programs that help them build confidence and momentum in their first year.

The Strong Series helps students engage academically across the year.

• Start Strong
• Stay Strong
• Finish Strong

The First Year Cup is a Residential College tradition that brings first-year students together through friendly competition, school spirit, and shared experiences.

Throughout the fall semester, Residential Colleges compete in a variety of events and challenges designed to help students build community, show pride in their college, and create lasting memories. First Year Cup opportunities may include athletic competitions, academic engagement opportunities, community challenges, and Residential College pride activities.

Students can earn points for their Residential College by participating in designated First Year Cup events and competitions. Some events award points based on participation, while others award points based on competition results or college performance.

At the end of the fall semester, one Residential College is recognized as the First Year Cup champion.