From fall 2021 to summer 2022, the College Completion Network conducted virtual focus groups with administrators at 47 2-year and broad-access 4-year colleges with the goal of better understanding the advising policies, practices, and programs (hereafter referred to as "strategies") that colleges use to support student success.…

The College Completion Network conducted a systematic review of the research on advising strategies that support college completion. Several key findings can inform policy and practice: Holistic and comprehensive interventions that combine multiple components to meet student needs improve student outcomes. These types of interventions provide…

Over the years, a number of interventions aimed at increasing student engagement and performance have been implemented in higher education. Some of these, labeled high-impact practices (HIPs), when done well, have led to documented evidence of student success. Two approaches that have been identified as HIPs--first-year seminars and learning…

A North Dakota State University study found that during a required first-year seminar, students whose course instructors served as their academic advisors voluntarily attended advising sessions significantly more often than did students whose advisors were not their course teachers. Areas for further research and implications for advising programs…

Students often arrive at universities ill-prepared for the reflective practice needed to derive maximum benefits from a Freshman Seminar. At the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, portfolio projects are semester-long assignments in which the portfolio serves as a capstone activity to help freshmen more thoroughly analyze their first year…

Describes the development and content of a freshman seminar titled "The Psychology of Mushrooms," which teaches psychology as natural history. This approach allowed the course to proceed from concrete experience to general principals of perception, learning, social, and abnormal psychology. (Author/LS)

To assist integration of incoming freshman into the academic environment, improve social acclimation, and increase student retention, Northern Michigan University created a first-year experience program with community as its central focus. Its key to success is the use of block scheduling, combining a freshman seminar with other classes. Pilot…

An interview with David Riesman, founder of Harvard University's (Massachusetts) freshman seminar program, covers the origins and structure of the seminars, Riesman's own college experience, the importance of the college experience, faculty research, and the role of faculty in student intellectual development. (MSE)

The development of a freshman seminar at Ohio State University over 70 years is chronicled, looking at the impact of historical influences and the changing values of higher education on the character of the course. The structure and content of the current course are also outlined. (MSE)

This monograph contains 15 papers on aspects of college and university student and family orientation programs. Following a prologue, "Reflections on the Future of Orientation," by M. Lee Upcraft, the papers are: (1) "Today's Students and Their Impact on Orientation and First-Year Programs" (Tony W. Cawthon and Michael Miller);…

Reviews a college freshmen history seminar project in which students wrote, illustrated, and prepared a U.S. history textbook on the 1950s and 1960s. Reflecting on the resulting text, Ramsay questions whether students succumbed to the didactic fallacy; and cites a lack of cohesiveness, but praises the project's value as a teaching exercise. (LS)

A study investigating the effect of a freshman seminar on students' social and academic adjustment to college (the University of North Carolina (Charlotte) found that seminar participants (n=150) had higher grades and participated in more out-of-class contacts with faculty than did a matched group of non-seminar students. (Author/MSE)

A study investigated the academic achievement of 390 students in a freshman seminar designed to enhance academic success of three risk groups (underachievers, overachievers, and low achievers). The populations responded to seminar content in distinct ways. Comparison with a control group showed the only gain was in retention of low achievers.…

Reports research on the relationship between student interaction in freshman seminar courses and instructor techniques and interaction. Results indicate that freshmen differ significantly from upperclassmen and differ somewhat from their instructors when reporting effects of certain teaching techniques on classroom participation. Students and…

The freshman seminar at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis is taught by a team that includes faculty, an academic advisor, librarians, and student mentors and is often linked to a disciplinary course. Faculty serve as instructors in the linked course, and student mentors lead supplemental instruction groups. Challenges…