Despite their aim to foster belongingness, a small percentage of incoming college students (1%-2%) report feeling excluded (not belonging) during their outdoor orientation program. Feelings of exclusion are often highly consequential to a person transitioning to college. This study explores the experiences of students reporting low levels of…

Objective: Assess the prevalence, perceptions, sociodemographic/personal factors that influence Juul use among incoming freshmen. Participants: Incoming undergraduate students (N = 1,706) attending a public university in the southeastern U.S. Methods: Cross-sectional survey administered August 2018. Bivariate relationships assessed using…

The COVID-19 pandemic that began in March 2020 gave rise to a number of challenges for first-year experience activities at universities globally. One of the key challenges was the process of onboarding first-year students through an orientation programme that could not take place face-to-face as per the norm. In 2021, the first-year orientation at…

This study aimed to explore the factors reported by first-year international students which helped or hindered their experiences of transition to a multicultural higher education institution in the United Arab Emirates. Descriptive phenomenology was used to portray participants constructed and co-constructed views, formed through their individual…

This study, which adopted an "ex post facto" research design, investigated the relationship between goal orientation and learning readiness among first year students in three public universities in Kenya. A sample size of 372 first years from the three universities were obtained using both stratified and simple random sampling…

The research objectives were (1) to study the factors affecting the development of hope of college freshman students in Guangxi International Business Vocational College. (2) to develop curriculum based on the happiness theory. (3) to compare the hopes of college freshman students before and after learning by curriculum based on the happiness…

Purpose: Peer mentoring programs in higher education settings support incoming students in their transition and adaptation to college life. Mentoring program evaluation research primarily focuses on student outcomes and documents mentoring relationship quality (MRQ) as an important component of programs that facilitate change. The current study…

Purpose: The study's purpose is to present and empirically test a model that identifies academic self-concept as a mediator of the relationship between gender, sexual orientation and self-perceptions of leadership ability. Design/methodology/approach: Surveys were administered to 964 first-year undergraduate students. Findings: Academic…

Whereas many college freshmen succeed during their first year, some struggle with transitioning. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive generic study was to examine the difficulties some high school graduates experience adapting to the college social environment. First-year college students often have feelings of homesickness, isolation,…

First-year students at universities continue to experience adjustment challenges which are an indication of low academic buoyancy. Academic buoyancy is a student's ability to succeed amidst academic difficulties and setbacks in academic settings. This study examined the gender differences in academic buoyancy among first-year undergraduate…

To shed light on how first-year (FY) experiences affect student well-being, the current study used Saks and Gruman's (2018) socialization resources theory to examine the mediating effect of student course engagement on the relationship between FY onboarding usefulness perceptions and changes in student satisfaction and depression. Additionally,…

University First Year Seminar (FYS) programs are diverse in their content and pedagogy. Yet all seek to assist first-year students in the difficult college transition. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate if grouping similar academic majors into the existing First Year Seminar (FYS) courses would improve social connectedness, use of…

Students entering into US-based higher educational institutions are electing more to take a gap year, loosely defined as a 6-12-month student-directed experience to pursue personally relevant interests, rather than traditionally matriculate into their institution after high school (Simpson, 2004; White, 2009; O'Shea, 2014; GYA, 2023a). However,…

First-year students face a number of problems in adjusting to college and university life. This study investigated the academic achievement of students who had successfully completed freshman orientation through a first-year experience program. The term "first-year experience" will be used interchangeably with "first-year…

This paper examines students' perspectives on the main transitional challenges experienced when commencing higher education. It explores which students are most affected by the transition and is the first paper to provide an overview of student recommendations to help improve the transition in an Irish context. The study involves large-scale…