In the process of adjusting to a new institutional environment, transfer students will often experience difficulties and these difficulties may limit their academic potential. Can an institution create a formal process which can help the transfer student adjust to the institutional environment? This study is an examination of a program--an extended transfer student orientation course modeled after the freshman extended orientation course which was developed at the University of South Carolina. Grade Point Average (GPA) was used to study the effects of the course on academic achievement (academic integration as measured by GPA, retention and graduation rates). This experimental study was conducted at Oregon State University, a northwestern land-grant institution. The study was conducted with two groups of newly-admitted transfer students. The experimental group (N=80) consisted of those self-selected transfer students enrolled in the extended transfer student orientation course, while the comparison group (N=80) consisted of transfer students, picked at random, who were not enrolled in the course. The two groups were studied after the Fall 1988 extended transfer student orientation course. The demographic data revealed that a majority of the students transferred from in-state institutions, tended to enter from two-year institutions and four-year institutions. This study showed no evidence that the extended transfer student orientation course had an effect on academic achievement. / Graduation date: 1993