Accompanying the growth of freshman seminars and extended orientation courses has been a rich body of literature depicting the process and outcome aspects of the course. This paper provides an annotated review of the investigations on freshman seminar/extended orientation courses. The review is designed to provide faculty and administrators with general guidance on how these courses are configured as well as comprehensive documentation on their general effects. Topics include the effects of these courses on student retention; academic performance; attitudes toward college; faculty; student/faculty involvement; attitudes toward faculty; student use of academic services; student knowledge of the university; involvement in extracurricular activities; remediation of academic skills; and student personality factors. The organizational and content structure of freshman courses and the historical development of the freshman seminar concept are also discussed. (Author/LLL)