Students around the globe have unique first-year experiences but struggle with many of the same challenges. This monograph focuses on their journeys and provides insights for educators interested in learning about how institutions across the globe provide supports to students dealing with first-year transition issues. Based on the successful…

This monograph presents data from a 1994 national survey on freshman seminars gathered from 1,003 accredited, two- and four-year colleges with student populations of over 100 students. The survey investigated the content and structure of freshman seminars in a mail survey of provosts/vice presidents for academic affairs at 2,460 institutions Among…

In response to California State Assembly Bill (AB) 3, which requires the state's community colleges to implement orientations and other specified matriculation services, Fullerton College (FC) developed two orientation videos in 1989 for native speakers of English and English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) students. The videos were used by counselors…

A college student orientation program is described which incorporates outdoor adventure activities. The purpose of the program is to challenge the participants and encourage cooperation between individuals. The two general categories of adventure activities used in this program are low risk (initiative games, nature walks, camping, and nature…

A survey of 25 international students studying in Massachusetts colleges gathered information on 4 specific aspects of their American college experience (recruitment, orientation, adaptation, and acculturation) as well as about their experiences with English. In interviews, nine students said they had had no problems with the English language;…

The graduate student orientation program conducted at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is described, and supplementary orientation materials are provided. The orientation program incorporates the following thrusts: instructional and research programming, personal and professional development, departmental programming, social interaction, and…

The University of California at Los Angeles's (UCLA's) Transfer Summer Program (TSP) is designed to increase the academic achievement, retention, and graduation rates of underrepresented and low-income students and to ease their transition from community college to UCLA. In 1989, a study was conducted to assess the extent to which TSP students…

An orientation manual from Nova University of Florida is presented that is designed to introduce the regional student to the school's field-based doctoral program. The manual contains information on a chronological sequence of activities from admission to graduation including core seminar and specialization seminar syllabi, practicums,…

This minicourse has been designed for counselors to use with "About High School, Book 4" of the Educational Opportunities in Virginia publications. It consists of a sequential series of six 45-minute classroom guidance sessions to be conducted with seventh grade students. The course focuses on helping students, with parent involvement,…

A study was conducted by the Learning Assessment Retention Consortium of the California Community Colleges to determine the extent to which the state's community colleges had implemented matriculation practices which were recommended by the Board of Governors in 1984, but which had not received state funding. The study investigated college…

Efforts to train graduate student instructors (GSIs) at the University of California, Berkeley, are considered in this newsletter issue. Administrative changes and ways to improve GSI selection, training, and evaluation are considered, along with: proposed changes in graduate student teaching titles, grants to help faculty and departments…

This paper presents selected research findings from Monitoring the Future, an annual series of national surveys focusing on lifestyles and drug use among representative samples of American high school seniors that has been conducted every year since 1975. The presentation focuses on two issues: aspects of lifestyle currently associated with drug…

Following the theory that a community of practice must be comprised of three elements: domain, community, and practice (Wenger, 2001), this case study examines the extent to which a university was successful in establishing a community of learners in their orientation program for online graduate students. Specifically, it explores the objectives…

At the Fayette Campus of Pennsylvania State University (which offers the first two years of baccalaureate education), volunteering faculty members are selected to serve as academic counselors during freshmen orientation on the basis of their student-orientation, motivation, realistic perspective on counseling objectives, and their willingness to…

A study was conducted at Foothill College (California) during Fall 1978 and Spring 1979 to determine the effect of different approaches to pre-registration counseling on students' academic success and degree of satisfaction with their college experience. Four groups of 50 randomly selected, first-time, full-time students were involved in the…