The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between motivation and academic success for community college freshmen orientation students. Moreover, the study compared the relationship among specific motivational factors of students classified as either academically prepared or underprepared, as determined by ACT/ASSET scores. Motivation was assessed by the use of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), which measures six motivational factors on a seven-point Likert scale. The motivation factors included in the MSLQ are intrinsic goal orientation, extrinsic goal orientation, task value, control beliefs about learning, self-efficacy for learning and performance, and test anxiety. A total of 428 first-time, full-time freshmen were administered the MSLQ on the second day of an hour-long, one-credit freshmen orientation course. Multiple regression was used to investigate the relationship between the motivational factors and students' academic success (grade) in the course. No statistical significance was found in this study to support the hypothesis concerning the relationship between motivation and academic success in freshmen orientation. However, analysis of variance of the mean scores did find significant differences between academically prepared students and academically underprepared students in four of the six motivational factors studied. Implications of the findings for freshmen orientation programs are discussed. Appendixes include: Demographic Information questionnaire; proposal letter; Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire; "A Manual for the Use of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MLSQ)" (P. Pintrich, D. Smith, T. Garcia, and W. McKeachie); and data relating to the Hutchinson Community College and Area Vocational School. (Contains 87 references.) (Author/MKF)