TIP's First-Year Seminar (NSC 108) is designed to help incoming TIP Scholars transition successfully from high school to college. The purpose of the class is to introduce you to strategies that will enable you to succeed in college and beyond. It will help you engage in your new community, achieve your educational goals, plan your academic path, grow personally, and explore your developing identity as a science professional.
This course is taught by TIP staff, and each class has a teaching assistant (TA) who is a trained TIP student leader.
In this class you will:
- Understand the pathway to your degree
- Learn to adapt your learning strategies for college
- Identify resources designed to help you meet your academic, professional, and personal goals
- Explore some attributes of a STEM professional and how they apply to your future career path
- Reflect on your growth and development
Class Expectations & Requirements
Respect for others. This course includes considerable student-to-student interaction. To keep this a comfortable place for multiple perspectives to be explored, respect for fellow students is vital and mandatory.
Participation/Engagement. You will get the most out of the seminar through actively participating and engaging in classroom activities and discussion.
Meeting with your mentor team outside of class is expected. The course accompanies the mentor group experience as part of what we call the TIP advantage.
Have fun! This course is all about you! Have fun as you navigate your first semester at UT.
NSC 108 Student Testimonials
"What I gained from the NSC course was intel and a lot of information about the campus resources + my degree. I feel much more prepared for the future of my college life and am thankful for this course."
"I now feel comfortable pursuing STEM, as this course taught me that everyone faces most of the same academic struggles and it's okay to feel overwhelmed with it at times!"
"I gained friends and experience. This course was great, and it was basically the friend I needed for my first ever semester!"
"Surprisingly it was like a counseling course for me, the professor is super caring and provide me with many, many resources that I would probably not know until the end of college if I never did research. It was very helpful cause I know all about the academic resources, personal supports, scholarship, financial, and many more!"
"I gained lots of knowledge about my degree and what to expect in the future! It helped me feel very prepared for registration and was in general a really fun and uplifting class to go to."
"I gained a better knowledge about how to function as a college student in a way that would benefit both my social and academic life. I gained some friends, and I feel better about speaking up in class."
"I gained a stronger foothold as a UT student, understanding more about myself, campus, and how to balance it all."
"I gained a new insight on what it means to be a student at The University of Texas at Austin. I am valued in every way and belong here."