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.