The article describes the characteristics of adaptation to a new learning environment of first-year students entering higher education institutions, as well as their needs for achievement. The importance of adaptation of lower-year students to the educational process and social environment, their impact on their academic performance, learning skills, and social success, is theoretically substantiated on the basis of Kazakh and foreign psychological literature. The features of social adaptation and motivation to achieve success of students in the first years of study at a university are studied experimentally. Based on experimental studies, it is concluded that, although the motivation to achieve success of first-year students in adapting to a new social learning environment is not at a very high level, the main factors that are of primary importance are self-adaptation, perception of oneself and others, and internal control over one's own actions. It was found that students still experience emotional discomfort when adapting to a new learning environment and do not give priority to self-dominance. 106 subjects participated in the experimental study, the questionnaire of the need for achievement by Yu.M. Orlova and the methodology for diagnosing socio-psychological adaptation by K. Rogers and R. Diamond were used.