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First Year Experience Technical Report, Carl Simpson, Linda D. (Linda Darlene) Clark

Office of Institutional Effectiveness

Executive Summary: This report was prepared as background to ongoing discussions concerning the first year experience, in particular the study group by that name headed by Dean Marie Eaton. Data come from surveys of a cohort of new freshmen and new transfers, who entered Western in Fall, 1994. They were surveyed that Fall and in the Spring of that same academic year. Only about one-third of new students, many of whom failed to attend Summer advising sessions, find the transition to Western "very" or "moderately" difficult. The great majority expected Western to be more difficult than their previous schools. Most …