First-year seminars (FYS) comprise one of 11 researched interventions in postsecondary education known as High-Impact Practices, but few rigorous studies report significantly high impacts. This study examined a FYS employing propensity score matching to link cases and controls in a quasi-experimental design. One semester later cumulative grade…

As higher education institutions increasingly globalize, international student inclusion in First-Year Experience (FYE) programs remains fragmented and marginal. While many universities offer separate orientations or supplemental support, these efforts often reflect a deficit-based model that treats internationalization as an add-on rather than a…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the meaningful impacts of FYS courses on student success, academic performance, and retention rates in a large urban community college. Using quantitative research methods, the researcher compared Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 institutional data of enrollment and retention to evaluate student…

The transition from high school to college is a crucial period for students, marked by personal and academic growth as they adapt to a more independent higher education environment. First-year seminars are offered by colleges and universities to support this transition, emphasizing the importance of instructors recognizing and treating students as…

In the post-COVID-19 higher education landscape, administrators must question the legacy of their programs and methods to rise up and meet not only the technological integrations that are a part of educational infrastructures but the demands of the profession moving it beyond the twenty-first century. Since the twentieth-century, first-year…

Starting university is challenging. Students require resilience to face the inevitable challenges of university life, yet many may not be equipped with the strategies they need. In this research, we explored changes in resilience following the delivery of a resilience building module within a core first-year university course. Psychology students…

At many institutions of higher education, first-year seminars are meant to help students transition to college life and to provide them with resources and skills to develop socially and academically, supporting persistence (Jamelske, 2009; Janz, 2004). Since their inception, researchers have evaluated the effectiveness of these seminars and their…

Scholarship on first-year seminar (FYS) courses is rapidly growing and diversifying. However, the available knowledge, for the most part, remains fragmented and limited to only one institutional setting, seminar type, or student group. Accordingly, this meta-synthesis was designed to examine 2 decades of research on FYS courses to determine the…

Persistence and graduation rates for students from low-income backgrounds are much lower than their peers. One high-impact practice aimed at improving success rates is the first-year seminar, but practitioners have expressed a need for guidance on improving the course to support students better. Utilizing a design-thinking framework, we developed…

Sustainability is an important issue that we all face, including higher education students. We assert that the transition into the contemporary higher education context needs educators to plan transition pedagogy that engages students with the world during their studies, instead of solely using curriculum as preparation for the future world of…

The transition to university can be challenging, and while universities provide orientation support, many students still struggle. Extending orientation through embedded supports and skill building in first-year curricula provides students opportunities to develop the academic skills required for university while growing confidence. This study…

First-Year Experience (FYE) courses are found in colleges across the United States to support students' transition to college (McBride et al., 2021, "Journal of the First-Year Experience & Students in Transition" 33:99-119, Young & Keup, 2016, "New Directions for Community Colleges" 2016:57-69). This study explored how…

The purpose of this article is to describe a doctoral residency seminar course that is part of a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction degree program. Courses such as these provide new doctoral students with the necessary experiences to help them succeed in the program. This course is a venue for students to discuss the degree program, including…

Financial literacy skillsets may be lacking in the first-year college student population, which may contribute to lower first-year college student retention rates. Because financial literacy is a skillset that may need to be taught to college students, this study attempted to understand and explore the link between financial literacy levels and…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to discover, from the First-Year Experience student perspective, how the course might be improved to better meet their needs in the post-pandemic environment. The transitional experiences of first-year college students and best practices for the First-Year Experience course curriculum have…