This course will provide a safe environment for sharing your successes and your challenges, getting to know other first-year students, beginning a lasting relationship with your instructor and some other students, developing your academic plan based on your strengths and interests, and thinking about your career after graduating from college or transferring to a four-year college or university.

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

To begin, in this first chapter, we’ll discuss how you fit into the whole idea of college. We’ll consider why the United States has more colleges and universities than any other country in the world. We’ll also help you explore the purposes of college—many that your college might define for you—and set goals for your college experience. Even more important, we’ll help you define your purposes for being here and offer many strategies to help you succeed.