First-year seminars are nearly ubiquitous fixtures in American higher education, and research has documented their positive effect on student persistence. Only limited research, however, has attempted to isolate the impact of various aspects of first-year seminars on persistence, especially on a cross-institutional basis. We use a survey of almost…

First-year seminar courses are used to provide students with a structured orientation to resources at a college or university. These courses almost invariably emphasize academic, social, and career development. Recently, first-year seminar courses have been adapted to meet the unique needs of students in different academic disciplines. Very little…

In 2000, Rutgers College launched a First-Year Interest Group Seminar (FIGS) program that offers entering new students an opportunity to engage in conversations on topics of mutual interest (health and medicine, business, or law) as well as learn about how to navigate a large Research-I institution. Each student involved in FIGS enrolls in a…

Improving the first-year experience has been part of a broader set of initiatives to respond to concerns about undergraduate education (Astin, Keup, & Lindholm, 2002). This research examined the efficacy of a first-year seminar on student satisfaction and retention at a Research Extensive, urban and public land-grant university. This study…

Vassar offers two types of computer courses: (1) the introductory courses in Computer Science Studies convey the intrinsic features of computer systems and stress their capacities to support established numeric and symbolic modes of inquiry and (2) the Freshmen Seminars which reveal the facility of computers for aiding man's critical process by…

This collection presents essays on service-learning and its role in the education of first-year college students. Following a preface by John N. Gardner and an introduction by Edward Zlotkowski, the chapters of section 1, "Making the Case for Service-Learning in the First Year of College," are: (1) "High School Service-Learning and the Preparation…

Several learning communities and first-year programs have been developed at Bowling Green State University, a public doctoral-research intensive university in the midwest, over the last few years. Such programs include the Bowling Green Effect Mentoring Program, the Literacy Serve and Learn program, the Honors Program, the Center for Multicultural…

Students enrolled in a first-year seminar were paired with a matched comparison group, and retention of the 1,853 students in the two groups was compared over a period of 4 years. Results indicated significantly greater retention over a period of 4 years for students enrolled in the seminar. (EV)

Surveyed instructors in the freshman seminar program at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs about effects of teaching in the program. Found several recurring themes of opportunity and challenge within three categories: professional, personal, and political. For example, faculty reported an increased sense of connection to students and…

Examined the effects on teaching techniques of faculty (n=68) at the University of South Carolina who taught a freshman seminar after completing a training workshop. Many faculty reported that they had transferred the new teaching techniques learned in preparation for the freshman seminar to their discipline-based courses. These included lecturing…

All first-year students who entered the University of Missouri-Columbia as animal science majors between the fall of 1998 and 2004 (n = 619) had the opportunity to participate in a residentially-based Freshmen Interest Group (FIG) and/or a learning community specifically designed for them. The odds of graduating is significant for all three…

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…

This book's 10 chapters offer support and information on effective training of instructors of first-year college seminars. The included chapters are: (1) "Instructor Training: Rationale, Results, and Content Basics" (Joseph B. Cuseo); (2) "Teaching and Today's Changing First-Year Students" (M. Lee Upcraft and Pamela S. Stephens); (3) "What We Know…

This paper examines several models of freshman seminar programs, reviews the assessment and research literature showing the efficacy of these programs, and discusses research emphases of the new National Center for the Study of the Freshman Year Experience at the University of South Carolina. (Author/MLW)

A North Dakota State University study found that during a required first-year seminar, students whose course instructors served as their academic advisors voluntarily attended advising sessions significantly more often than did students whose advisors were not their course teachers. Areas for further research and implications for advising programs…