First-year seminars have become common at liberal arts and other colleges across the United States. An accumulating body of research appears to demonstrate that this curricular element is associated with increased retention of students and is positively correlated with graduation rates, student adjustment and involvement, student satisfaction, faculty attitudes about teaching, and other measures of success. In fall 2004, the University of Maine at Farmington (UMF) implemented a pilot of four-credit first-year seminars. This pilot design appeared to present a rare opportunity to carry out a quasi-experimental assessment of a novel curricular element, an experiment in which about half the students were trying out the new element and half were continuing with the standard approach. The initial purpose of the UMF study was to assess the effect of first-year seminars on student success and retention in comparison to the effect of previously established first-year transition courses at UMF, the one-credit fall course titled Explorations in Learning and the one-credit summer course titled Summer Experience. As the study turns out, some of the researchers' concerns were well founded, but the multiple-assessment approach proved fruitful for enabling both data-driven insight and powerful new questions for future research. (Contains 5 tables.)