Welcome to Intensive First-Year Seminars

IFS is a transition-to-college program. It is your chance to step into life at IU Bloomington before the fall semester even begins. With IFS, you will move into your dorm on campus early to work with leading faculty in a 3-credit course, create your first college friendships, immerse yourself in unique programming designed to connect you with IU's extensive resources, and prepare yourself for life at college.

IFS 2024 takes place from August 4th to August 21st, right before the fall semester begins. Virtual week starts on August 4th. IFS students move to campus on August 11th, and in-person class meetings begin on August 12th.

Explore Courses

Reserve your spot

Your success at IU begins here

At IFS, you'll have the opportunity to:

  • Connect with a top professor
  • Participate in a small and rigorous college class
  • Learn alongside other incoming freshman & create lasting friendships
  • Explore IU's campus
  • Discover opportunities for leadership, service, and study

Connect with faculty

Learn from one of Indiana University's leading faculty members in a small classroom setting. Because IFS classes are small, students have the chance to work individually with their professor and make personal relationships with faculty. With classes in a variety of subjects and unique co-curricular opportunities, there's an IFS class for every type of student.

Create friendships

When you attend IFS, you aren't just academically successful, you're socially involved too. You will participate in a variety of activities and events while exploring campus and making friends with new and returning IU students. Meet other students before coming to campus at IFS virtual events. Have a blast at the IFS Welcome Festival, perform a hidden talent at an Open Mic Night, attend an outdoor movie night, and more. Experiences aren't limited to what happens in the classroom. At IFS, you'll never be bored.

Ad Fontes / Back to the Sources

Elizabeth Hebbard

What happens when we look at books that we cannot read? This course examines early books as cultural artifacts, using computers to store and map data onto geographical spaces, identify patterns, and complete a collaborative creative project: generating new digital fonts based on historic typefaces. 

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Black Dance Is/Black Dance Ain't: Intro to African/African American Aesthetics

Stafford C. Berry Jr.

What is black dance? Is there a black aesthetic? How do we know it when we see it? This course will interrogate African/Diaspora dance, power, and privilege in America.

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Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Travis J. Brown

How can we learn to be more effective innovators? What exactly makes a technology innovative? What is the process for taking a technological innovation and building a financially viable startup based on it? These are topics which are often discussed as being mysterious and, in turn, unteachable.

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Hudson and Holland Scholarship Program (HHSP)

As an HHSP student, you may be eligible to participate in IFS courses designed with your requirements in mind.

Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Experience (ASURE)

(ASURE) students who participate in IFS have the opportunity to complete one ASURE course before the fall semester starts.

Scholarships

IFS offers scholarship opportunities for Advance College Project (ACP) students and 21st Century Scholars.