First-Year Student Experiences: Uncovering the Hidden Expectations of Frontline Faculty Members and Student Services Administrators

Abstract

Research that explores the experiences of college students consistently finds that the first year is the most daunting to navigate. While a well-established but far from exhaustive list of factors has been found to impact a student’s transition to and retention in college, very little research has focused on frontline faculty and student services administrators’ hidden expectations of first-year students. Therefore, we explored what we call the integration information gap – the gap between what is expected of first-year students and what they actually know – how this gap is formed and how it can be narrowed. As a contribution to the literature on transition to college and retention, we discuss ways to prevent the gap, strategies to assist faculty members and administrators in an effort to narrow the gap, and suggestions for future research.