As college professors, researchers, and administrators with many years of experience working with first-year students, we’re well aware that starting college can be challenging. We also know that if you apply the ideas in this book to your everyday life, you are likely to enjoy your time in college, graduate, and achieve your life goals.

Your instructor may ask you to read every chapter in this book, but even if you’re not required to do so, consider this book a resource to answer questions you might have later this year and throughout your college experience. After this opening chapter, which discusses the value of college, purpose and goal setting, and academic planning, subsequent chapters cover topics such as managing your time, discovering your personal learning style, and understanding how your emotions affect your learning and interactions with others. The next chapters focus on what happens in class and cover topics such as thinking, listening, taking notes, reading, taking tests, writing and speaking, and developing information literacy skills. The concluding chapters address issues that are relevant both to college and to life beyond college: selecting an academic major and career, managing your money, developing healthy relationships, understanding diversity, and maintaining healthy behaviors.

Though some of the e-book’s content may seem like common sense, much of it is based on research and the experiences of thousands of college students and educators. And although some topics in this book might have been presented in high school, we find that many college success strategies cannot be properly understood until students are actually in college and have an immediate “need to know.”