The Fall Program for First Semester (FPF) makes a big university like UC Berkeley feel more like a small college!
Gifts to FPF help deliver academic services to first-year students in their first year at Berkeley. FPF’s small size is key: For the fall semester only, freshmen take FPF's core classes with the same cohort of students and form a network with advisors, instructors, and peers.
Class sizes range from 14 to 48 seats, and 80 percent of our classes have fewer than 40 students. Many of these same courses are taught in 300–1,000-person lectures on the main campus. Our instructors work closely with the FPF advisors to provide students with a holistic, high-impact learning experience. Participants in the program — started in 1983 — perform better academically than Berkeley students at large.
Your gift will help freshmen in FPF enjoy some of the following benefits as compared to nonparticipants:
- A liberal arts program with a curriculum focused primarily on fulfilling undergraduate degree requirements
- Smaller class sizes
- More direct interaction with instructors
- Enhanced student support services including regular one-on-one advising
- Dedicated classrooms facilities to enhance the cohort experience
- Additional workshops and programming designed to complement the curriculum and to build community
Email fpf@berkeley.edu
