<p>My daughter will start at Mizzou this fall as a direct-admit journalism scholar and honors student. She is looking at figs and tlcs. It looks like there are honors journalism figs and separate honors and journalism tlcs. I understand figs are freshman-only with upperclass advising/mentoring and tlcs include all years - freshman-senior. In starting out at Mizzou, is one better than the other? Any advice out there? We are not Missouri residents and don't know alumni, so we aren't sure where to start.</p>
<p>I’d go with the honors journalism FIG. My son, a Mizzou senior from out of state, would recommend it highly. Many of his core group of friends today were in his FIG or other FIGs in the honors dorm, which was Schurz that year. You take two or three classes with your FIG in fall semester. That means you know people in your classes and function on similar schedules so you can have lunch together. You also take the intro journalism seminar, which really isn’t a class, but mostly an information session. Of course, there are no guarantees you’ll like all your fellow FIG members. He’s lucky that he did. He had a great freshman year–in fact, a great four years.</p>
<p>The FIG was also part of the honors learning community, which must have been a TLC. I can’t be much help there. I only remember it because I found the t-shirt while cleaning out his room this week. Like FIGs, TLCs may mostly give first-year students a good way to ease into college. I’m not sure the mix of classes would be present in a learning community because so many people move off campus after freshman year.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. My D can’t choose housing until Wednesday, so we’ll have to see what is available by then.</p>