Undergraduates' first-year experience in engineering education impacts their retention and persistence. Strategic learning strategies (i.e. skill, will, and self-regulation) are important for students' academic achievement and retention. We examined to what extent (1) students' skill mediated the relationship between self-regulation and will and (2) the constructivist practices in the learning environment related to students' self-regulation. Data were collected from 293 engineering undergraduates in a redesigned first-year experience course. Path analysis showed that (1) skill mediated the relationship between self-regulation and will and (2) one dimension of the constructivist learning environment (i.e. sharing ideas with others) was correlated with self-regulation. This study helped faculty and researchers to better understand how to use integrated strategic learning strategies and create a constructivist learning environment for engineering students' academic success.