Objective: To examine the relationship between hope, core self-evaluations, physical function, emotional well-being, health risk behaviors, and academic performance in freshman enrolled in their first year of college.

Participants: Freshman (N = 495) attending a large public university in the Northeast completed an online survey between February 1 to February 13, 2017.

Methods: Cross sectional descriptive survey. Linear regression, path analysis, and structural equation modeling procedures were performed.

Results: Core self-evaluations mediated the relationship between hope and emotional well-being and academic performance. Contrary to the hypotheses, higher hope predicted more sexual risk taking behaviors and alcohol use.

Conclusions: Core self-evaluations is an important component of hope theory. Hope Theory is useful for predicting emotional well-being, and academic performance, but not as useful for predicting drug use, alcohol use, and sexual risk taking. Hope and core self evaluations interventions are needed to improve academic performance and emotional well-being in university freshman.