First-year seminars (FYS) are courses "intended to enhance the academic and/or social integration of first-year students" (Barefoot, 1992, p. 49). In 2008, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) introduced a list of 10 high-impact practices (HIPs) that had been tested and found to have significant positive influence on student engagement and retention (Kuh, 2008), including FYS and experiences. This study was designed to investigate a basic proposition: if HIPs are structured to improve student engagement and retention and FYS vary in how many and which elements of HIPs are present, then it is plausible that student outcomes (i.e., first-to-second-year retention) should vary based on the primary type of FYS on campuses. Therefore, the author attempted to link FYS type to overall institutional retention rates using samples at both a national level and institutional level. To date, no other study has addressed this question with a national sample and a variety of FYS types. It follows that the broad research question guiding this study was: Which type of FYS has the largest influence on student retention from the first to second year at the institution level?