This article discusses the findings related to a number of research projects investigating students' expectations and experiences of the first year in higher education. In particular, findings with regard to first-year students' expectations and challenges with issues of time management are reported. It was found that many students were realistic…

More than 25% of new college students begin their higher education careers outside of the traditional fall start date (National Student Clearinghouse, 2012). This study examines the social, personal, and academic experiences of spring admits at a large, private research institution in the western United States. In this study, a spring admit is…

This study investigated the differences among 465 Turkish first year university students regarding overall wellness and four of its dimensions (cognitive emotional wellness-CEW, relational wellness-RW, life goal-LG, and physical wellness-PW) in terms of self-esteem levels and gender. The data were gathered by administering the Rosenberg…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the roles of coping humour and gender in the college adjustment of Turkish freshmen. Considering greater happiness and academic achievement as predictors of initial college adjustment, data were gathered from a sample of 574 students using the Subjective Well-Being Scale (SWS) and the Coping Humour…

What exactly is an "outdoor orientation program?" First offered in the United States in the 1930s by Dartmouth College, outdoor orientation programs (OOPs) use adventure programming to help incoming students adjust to university or college. Typically, these programs are conducted in a wilderness or backcountry setting, are several days…

This research focused on the early experience of students entering an undergraduate course in a post-1992 university that is committed to widening participation. Using Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital and habitus as a theoretical framework, data were collected from students using an online questionnaire and small-group discussions during the…

Using data from the Virginia Community College System and building upon prior Florida-based research, this study examines whether student success course enrollment has positive associations with shorter term student outcomes, including earning any college credits within the first year and persisting into the second year. The present study finds…

A total of 296 students at a large southeastern university completed a series of measures designed to assess the connection between loneliness and alcohol use in the first college year. Results showed a somewhat surprising negative relationship between loneliness and alcohol consumption: As loneliness decreased, consumption increased. The…

The lifelong challenges for the individual with learning disabilities are unique, dynamic, and evident as the number of these students enrolling in postsecondary education increases. The increase underscores the importance of the transition process, which can present challenges and reinforces the need for secondary and postsecondary educators to…

First-year retention rates have seen minimal gains as high numbers of first-year students are leaving college due to insufficient academic skills and inability to adjust to the academic and social life of college. Programs that provide strategies to improve the transition from high school to college and that help develop skills to facilitate…

"Not belonging" is becoming a prevalent theme within accounts of the first-year student experience at university. In this study the notion of not belonging is extended by assuming a more active role for the idea of liminality in a student's transition into the university environments of academic and student life. In doing so, the article…

Homesickness is a major stressor for college students in general, and international students in particular, that has an adverse effect on their psychological health and academic performance. The present study examined the incidence and determinants of homesickness in a sample of international students from India attending a US university and…

The authors collected questionnaire data from college students (N = 79) at 2 time points during their freshman year to examine how changes in a sense of university belonging, quality of friendships, and psychological adjustment were associated. Students who had positive changes in university belonging had corresponding positive changes in…

This study examines Latino student's impressions of the university campus climate. The over-arching question guiding this study asked: How do Latino first college generation students negotiate the psychosocial, cultural and environmental perspectives of the college experience? The conceptual framework integrates three major higher education…

Of the challenges facing universities, the need to attract and accommodate students of increasingly varied demographic backgrounds is perhaps one of the most pressing. This study was conducted to profile the first-year student cohort at a new university campus characterised by the non-traditional students typical of a rapidly changing tertiary…