Establishing positive social relationships is important for students’ success and
retention in higher education (HE). This can be especially challenging during the transition into
HE since students often move to a larger educational setting and need to build relationships
with new peers and staff. Research is needed to better understand social connections during
this critical time, including the role of demographics, curricular and extracurricular
participation, and how peer and staff connections predict academic achievement. Surveys of
290 first-year students at a large US public university assessed with whom students were
interacting, how often, for what reasons, and with what modes of communication. Results
include a detailed description of students’ interpersonal connections at the transition into HE,
differences by demographics, curricular, and extracurricular participation, and the
associations between students’ patterns of relationships and their academic achievement
