This study was designed to determine if student’s background, interests or non-academic skills affect their grade point average (GPA) during their first year at a large 4-year Animal Science program. All new students (n = 344) entering the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University in the fall of 2013 completed assessments (TalentSmart’s Emotional Intelligence (4 categories)) of non-academic skills at the beginning of their first semester. Demographic surveys were used to collect additional data (sex, residency status, entry status (transfer/freshman), species interest, career goals, and home background). Student records were accessed to provide data on previous and current academic performance that included high school rank, ACT scores, first year ISU GPA, and retention data. All data were analyzed using general linear model methods (PROC GLM, SAS Version 9.3). Fixed effects included sex, residency status, entry status, species interest, career goals, and background as well as ACT and overall Emotional Intelligence (EI) scores. For ACT and Emotional Intelligence assessments, students were separated into group quartiles by their scores. Of the higher order fixed effects, only ACT scores significantly affected end-of-first-year GPA. There was no interaction between Emotional Intelligence quartile scores and ACT quartile scores on end-of-first-year GPA. For incoming students in the ISU animal science program, ACT scores are the best predictors of first year grade point average.