An examination of the first year of college and the intersecting challenges facing today's students, written by top educational researchers.

Preface; Part I. Societal and Demographic Factors Underlying First-Year Student Success: 1. Exploring the role of affordability on first-year student access and persistence Jamey Rorison, Mamie Voight and Alain Poutré; 2. Realizing the educational benefits of diversity: a state of perpetual institutional self-correction Michell J. Chang; 3. First-generation college student success Evan Mulfinger, Chen Zuo, Frederick L. Oswald and Alex Casillas; Part II. Practices that Foster Student Success: 4. Investigating first-year seminars as a high-impact practice Jennifer R. Keup and Dallin George Young; 5. Transforming the 'real first-year experience': the case for and approaches to improving gateway courses Andrew K. Koch and John N. Gardner; 6. Strengthening success for students with multiple risk factors David A. Laude, Lindsey A. Kaschner, Cassandre Giguere Alvarado and Carolyn K. Connerat; 7. Student engagement and retention James Cole, Robert Gonyea and Louis Rocconi; 8. Bloom's 2 sigma problem and data-driven approaches for improving student success Alfred Essa and Stephen Laster; Part III. Attitude and Behavior Change Promoting Student Success: 9. Nudges, norms, and navigation: behavioral insights to improve student success Benjamin Castleman and Katharine Meyer; 10. Promoting mindset change and student success Robert S. Feldman, Karan Goel, Arthur Blakemore and Mattityahu Zimbler; 11. Stereotype threat and stereotype inoculation: barriers that prevent and interventions that promote the success of underrepresented students in the first year of college Tara C. Dennehy, Jacqueline S. Smith, Chelsea Moore and Nilanjana Dasgupta; Index.