Welcome to college? developing a richer understanding of the transition process for adult first year students using reflective written journals

This study investigates the process of adjustment among adult learners by focusing on their own perceptions as they make the transition to higher education in an Irish setting, in order to gain a richer understanding about early university experience. The analysis of the journal-based reflections confirms existing insights about the complexity of the adjustment process, emphasizing that adult students seem to face particular challenges and opportunities that may not prevail among their younger counterparts. The data provides a more personal and subjective picture of adjustment issues than has typically been available to date. The benefits of keeping and using insights from reflective journals are explored and in conclusion a "V-curve" model of mature student adjustment is proposed that suggests a more extreme form of the long established "U-curve" theory derived from organizational literature on adjustment.