This study assessed the impact of a course required of students placed on Academic Probation at a 4-year university. We focused our analysis on the 4,673 students who took the course as part of the 2008-2012 Fall cohorts, examining in detail the demographic composition of students taking the course as well as the timing of when the course was taken as related to its impact. Using logistic regression to control for a number of variables, we found that students who took the course as required were approximately 20% more likely to persist and graduate compared to students placed on Academic Probation who did not take the course. These findings suggest that a course of this kind, credit-bearing and with a curriculum centered on helping students identify purpose and motivation for their higher education experience, may serve as a widely useful intervention for helping to dramatically increase the retention and graduation of students facing academic difficulty.