first year success

The First-Year Experience at Southeast Missouri State University offers many programs and services to assist you during your first-year at Southeast. Through the First STEP Orientation Program, your UI100 First-Year Seminar Course and the entire General Education Program, we anticipate your transition to Southeast will be a smooth one.  Let us know how we can assist you.

Advising Centers

Trained, experienced, and caring advisors give you assistance in choosing the best courses for your chosen major.  Undecided? See the advisor in the General Education and Academic Information Services.

Center for Writing Excellence

Find help with your writing assignments, and learn about the University’s well-known “Writing Across the Curriculum” program. Get help with your placement in the English Department’s composition course sequence and find out how you can meet the University’s writing achievement test requirement.

Disability Services

Contact for Disability Services to request assistance for special needs such as reading disabilities.

First-Year Seminar (UI100)

Check out our nationally-known first-year seminar, required of all students with fewer than 24 semester hours. Learn its history, its evolution to its present form, and why Southeast believes all first-year students must take the course.

Honors Program

Take courses and participate in out-of-class activities specifically designed for academically gifted students.

Learning Assistance Programs

You can get help finding your way around campus, getting a tutor, analyzing and developing your study skills!

Orientation (First STEP, Transfer Orientation & Opening Week)

Learn about academics and out-of-class opportunities, be advised for your first semester, and get your schedule and University ID card, among other things. Meet faculty, staff, and current students and get connected!

Southeast Online

Southeast Online is your opportunity to access courses at Southeast Missouri State University when you can't always be on campus. Using a variety of technologies, we make it convenient for you to pursue an online degree or supplement your education with blended, webinar or online courses.

Testing Services

Find out about entry-level admission test requirements (e.g, American College Testing [ACT]), a schedule of their dates as well as how to register for them. Ditto professional school entrance exams (e.g., the Law School Admissions Test[LSAT]) as well as other program testing requirements including placement into proper course sequence for you in:

• English composition – which English composition course is best for you?
• Mathematics – where should you continue (or start) your studies of math?
• Foreign Languages – how can you use your high school background (or skills learned outside of school) to earn additional credits in German, French, or Spanish?
• Music – which ensembles do you qualify for? Which piano course is best for you?

General Education Program

Our nationally known and award-winning general education program based on nine skill-based objectives that employers seek in their new hires in a program of studies across all four years of the university experience.