Studies highlight Mentoring Programs' benefits for first-year university students' academic, social, and personal adjustment. We assessed freshmen at the academic year start, regardless of program participation. A sample of 722 first-year Psychology students (601 females, 83.2%), aged 17-40 years (M = 20.83; SD = 3.90), included 381 (52.8%) in the Mentorship Program. Multiple instruments were used: Well-being Scale, Motivation Assessment Scale, Higher Education Adaptation Questionnaire, Thinking and Creating Styles Scale, and Emotional Intelligence Scale. Mentorship Program participants exhibited significantly higher Higher Education Adaptation (F (1, 718) = 9.074, p = .003, ηp2 = .012), especially in Social Adaptation (F (1,718) = 6.831, p = .009, ηp2 = .009) and Institution Adaptation (F (1, 718) = 6.467, p = .011, ηp2 = .009). The Flourishing dimension partially mediated the relation between Emotional Intelligence and Higher Education Adaptation (abcs = .24, bootSE = .03, 95% bootCI [.19, .29]), corresponding to a medium effect. These findings imply mentoring effectiveness depends on program and student attributes, urging exploration with more variables in future research.

Keywords: Higher education, Mentoring Programs, Motivation, Students, Well-being.