In 1985, the New Start Program was initiated at Kingsborough Community College (KCC) to encourage and assist students in academic difficulty at Brooklyn College (BC) in transferring to KCC. With the cooperation of BC's president, a letter was sent to several hundred students who were about to be dismissed from the college, inviting them to attend a KCC orientation and apply for September admission as students in good standing with up to 30 units in credit. They were assigned a counselor to help them to adjust and to monitor their progress. During the first year of the program, 63 former BC students enrolled at KCC, and exhibited high rates of retention and credit completion. Of the 51 fall 1985 entrants, 47 completed their first semester and 43 returned the following spring. Nearly half of the group had perfect rates of course completion for the year, earning a mean grade point average of 2.39. By June 1986, six had been awarded associate degrees and had been accepted to senior colleges. Possible explanations of the students' success at KCC include: (1) initially high levels of academic ability; (2) motivational and developmental progress; and (3) the supportive characteristics of KCC. (Author/EJV)