Wow! eBook
The First Days of College: 12 Decisions That Change Everything
Author(s): Steven L. VanderStaay (Author)
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- Publication Date: July 9, 2026
- Language: English
- Print length: 208 pages
- ISBN-10: B0FYY36QHQ
- ISBN-13: 9798216383062
Book Description
Each year, two million high school graduates begin college. Yet only about half graduate in four years. Nearly 4 in 10 leave without a degree altogether.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
What most distinguishes students who succeed from those who don’t are habits, mindsets, and strategies that any student can learn. This book is your guide to putting them into practice-beginning with the first days of college.
This college-success guide:
– Focuses on the first days of college-a critical window when effective habits and mindsets form most readily.
– Anchors each chapter in a specific decision students must make.
– Teaches the strategies successful students actually use
– Tackles hard truths about student debt, dropout risks, and campus safety issues like alcohol-related accidents and sexual assault.
– Addresses the concerns of new students-making friends, managing money, study strategies, and whether college is “worth it.”
– Provides a practical “Playbook” of activities to immediately apply each chapter’s concepts.
– Connects academic effort to personal purpose-helping students root their work in their values, aspirations, and who and what they most care about.
– Combines research on learning with insights from those who work most closely with new students.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“VanderStaay guides readers through the first few days in college by providing useful tips and practical strategies to enhance the student experience and prepare students to be successful in one of their most important life transitions” ―Vicki Vanderwerf, Director of Residential Life, University of Washington
“Having taught thousands of first-year college students myself, what struck me about Steven Vanderstaay’s The First Days of College, is how practical and needed the book is. In engaging and accessible prose, Vanderstaay analyzes the emotional, intellectual, technological, and economic challenges that first-year college students face. He then goes on to offer a ‘playbook’ of strategies and behaviors that will give students the patience and persistence they need to meet their academic and broader personal goals. This is the book that parents, high school counselors and freshmen orientation advisors across the country have all been waiting for-a clear and eloquent guide for how to succeed in college.” ―Tom Montgomery Fate, Professor Emeritus, College of DuPage, Chicago, author of The Long Way Home: Detours and Discoveries
“This book cuts through the noise of college advice by focusing on the critical first days of college. With a warm, teacherly voice, it offers reassuring and practical guidance, showing that anyone can intentionally establish good habits from the very start. A perfect read for students and parents in the summer before the first year of college.” ―Kelly A. Hogan, Biology Professor, Duke University, co-author of Inclusive Teaching: Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom
About the Author
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