Today, academic failure is closely monitored, especially when first year students are concerned. The aim of this dissertation is the comprehension of the mechanism that builds academic success. The approach is both quantitative and integrative. For this purpose, data have been collected from 700 first year students in social administration, law and psychology areas in the university of Burgundy. Collected information allows to control academic and demographic factors. This dissertation focuses on two aspects : a measure of the student’s cognitive abilities at their entry in the university and a measure of their motivation during the course of the year. The results show that the school background of students plays a crucial role in the prediction of their university success. This school determinism, however, is tempered with the indirect effect of social origin, establishing the persistence of social inequalities in success at the university level. Cognitive abilities also have an effect mediated by the school career, playing positively on success. To these factors determined prior to university entrance, shall be added the personal project of the student. Choices made by interest in the discipline augur better chances of success. Motivational abilities of the student impact most directly on their success. Measured in the context of the self-determination theory, intrinsic motivation has a positive influence while amotivation results in worse performance. Moreover, motivation is an asset for good students, but plays only a moderate role for average students and even none for the weakest. This result is highlighted by the positive effect of perceived competence on achievement, mediated by a higher intrinsic motivation.
