China has shown increased engagement in International Higher Education (IHE), an interest motivated by a tremendous demand among both Chinese and international students. Conducted at a full-scale Sino-foreign joint-venture university (JVU) in China, this study seeks to explore the motivation of first-year international students for applying to and…

This paper explores how expectations and post-secondary education (PSE) path disruption decisions are affected by a learning process that students experience once enrolled in a PSE program. An unexpected change in grades, between high school and first year PSE program, serves as an informative signal on how well their academic performance and…

This article reports on a survey of the expectations and experiences of first-year students who were enrolled in 2010 on programmes in Art & Design in the United Kingdom. The survey covered 20 institutions and received 778 usable responses. The results indicate considerable variation in both expectations and experiences, and provide a basis…

Students' expectations and experiences with university life are influenced by a number of variables. Many universities develop programs or promote aspects of existing programs to market the university's image. This research was motivated by our desire to determine the relationships between first-year students' college expectations and experiences,…

Each fall, thousands of eager freshmen descend on college and university campuses expecting the best education imaginable: inspiring classes taught by top-ranked professors, academic advisors who will guide them to a prestigious job or graduate school, and an environment where learning flourishes outside the classroom as much as it does in lecture…

In this article, the author states that no matter how experienced and exposed to life college freshmen may appear, no matter how sophisticated they may seem, they are vulnerable and unsure of themselves a lot of the time. The child in them grapples with the emerging adult; they are eager to enter adulthood but understandably fearful of what they…

Describes three case vignettes of college freshmen who are unhappy with their choice of schools early in their freshman years. Considers problems in dormitory living, academic pressures, and interpersonal problems. Discusses change in the campus environment in recent decades and the need for adult involvement in campus life. (NB)

A representative sample of 987 entering freshmen (45 percent male and 55 percent female) at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), were surveyed regarding their attitudes and demographic characteristics during two-day summer orientation sessions. The typical UMCP freshman was from an upper-middle class home, earned at least a B average…

The ability to estimate a student's chances of dropping out should be of value to advisors counseling entering freshman. Students who had been college freshmen in the fall of 1978 and who did not enroll for the fall of 1979 (N=111), and a random sample of students (N=509) continuing their education in the fall of 1979 completed questionnaires…

In this study, the relationship between students' expectations for the environment of the college they are about to enter and the level of formal education completed by their parents was investigated. It was hypothesized that entering freshmen students whose parents both had only a high school education differed from entering freshmen whose…

A multi-institutional study of 263 first-time college freshmen investigated the effects on students' social and academic integration of having expectations for college remain unmet. Results are discussed in terms of implications for enrollment management and the linkage of theories concerning college choice and student departure. (Author/MSE)

Information collected on the 1,312 freshmen who entered the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the fall of 1975 indicates that the average freshman is 18 years of age and that 78 percent are female, 96 percent are single, and 74 percent reside in dormitories. Other items of information include their academic potential and financial…

This report presents a national profile of black college freshmen in 1989-90 and shows how these students have changed based on the past 19 surveys (1971-1989), using data on 16,000-20,000 black freshmen from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program. The study focuses on a wide variety of characteristics of black college freshmen: family…

A study of University of Alberta freshmen's attitudes about their university experiences and their transition from high school focused on influences in their attendance, personal goals, self-perceived preparation for college, curriculum difficulty, adjustment needs, and fulfillment of expectations. (MSE)