The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of a summer bridge program geared toward first-year students at a large public university located in the Southeastern United States. The research question guiding this study was, "Does participation in a summer bridge program increase academic success for first-year college students?" I defined academic success outcomes as students' first-year fall semester grade point average, end-of first- year grade point average, first-year fall semester credit hours earned, first-year spring semester credit hours earned, end-of-first-year credit hours earned, and retention to the second year at the university. The primary methodological approach was propensity score analysis, specifically inverse probability weighting, used to compare participants in the Summer Bridge Program at the selected university to similar non-participant matches. To supplement the research and support gaps in the literature on summer bridge programs, I used basic interpretive qualitative inquiry to explore the experiences of past summer bridge program participants to understand why they became involved in the unique program researched. Four themes emerged from the exploratory study of past participants: eagerness to start college, interest in getting ahead, parallel peer comparisons, and building a peer network. The results of the evaluation study did not suggest a definitive positive impact of the Summer Bridge Program on the academic success of the first-year students who participated. In the primary analysis, a positive impact was only found for end-of-year credit hours earned. Overall, this study contributes empirical results to the literature on summer bridge programs by exploring the impact on academic success of a program that is distinctive from others by being open to all first-year college students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]