Students who attend How to FAU can expect to build greater confidence in their abilities to successfully access and utilize on-campus resources in academic, leadership development, and career readiness areas. Much like New Student Orientation, attendance for How to FAU is required for all first-time, first-year students and recommended for transfer students during their first semester at FAU.
All days of How to FAU events are required programs and attendance is integral to your transition to the University. Students will swipe into events with their FAU Owl Card and the Office of the Dean of Students will track attendance.
The choice to attend is similar to the decisions you make every day of your undergraduate career—whether to attend class or not, whether to meet with your academic advisor or not, or whether to get involved in student activities.
Just like regular class attendance has a positive impact on academic success, attending Student Success Events will enhance your academic experience by helping you get acquainted with FAU and build a sense of community before your first semester starts. How to FAU is the University’s way of ensuring you have a purposeful start to your college journey.
Additionally, if you are a student in an SLS course you will have course requirements that How to FAU activities may fulfill. Instructors will require reflection writings to complete the assignments.
We know that students who attend How to FAU programs have a greater sense of belonging and higher fall & spring GPAs than students who do not have How to FAU opportunities.
We understand that some students may have unavoidable conflicts during How to FAU events and may wish an excuse from some events. If you are in Marching Band or a fall competing varsity sport (Football, Soccer, Volleyball or Men's/Women's Cross Country) you do not need to request an exemption, your schedule is pre-determined based on your practice/competition schedules.
Examples of warranted exemptions include, but are not limited to, medical need, dependent childcare, severe illness, unexpected family emergencies and active military duty. Please contact the Office of the Associate Vice President and Dean of Students if you have an unavoidable conflict at deanofstudents@fau.edu.
Note: Any student granted an exemption will still be required to participate in certain How to FAU activities, including Convocation, and/or other student success outcome related programming.
