A study of the usefulness of dental school admission criteria (grade point averages, standardized test scores, credits, and paternal occupation) as predictors of graduation found that they did not distinguish between graduates and nongraduates, suggesting that existing criteria should be reexamined and others considered. (MSE)

A study examined the relationship between grades earned in college courses taken in their senior year of high school and the students' subsequent academic performance, including grades and attrition rates, as full-time, matriculated college freshmen. (MSE)

While there exist many examples of institutional use of the results of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), there is a relative paucity of research explicitly linking student outcomes to responses on the survey. A major Doctoral-Extensive institution in the Southeast recently conducted a large-scale implementation of the National…

Proposes a model of the vocational aspiration process and applies it to a national sample of Black high school seniors. Overall results highlight the importance of ability, educational plans, and family influence in determining the long-term commitment of Blacks to the pursuit of professional careers. (FMW)

A study (n=510) investigated students' cognitive and noncognitive variables predicting success and persistence in an undergraduate engineering program. Students performing well in science and mathematics and genuinely interested in engineering were more likely to persist and succeed. Predictor variables changed over the students' first two years.…

Discusses a survey of nonreturning students at Cuyamaca College (California), distinguishing between positive attrition (successful nonreturners) and negative attrition (unsuccessful nonreturners). Compares two groups in terms of goals, employment, satisfaction with college, high school performance, gender, and ethnicity. Recommends…

Beginning in 1992, Atlantic Community College, in New Jersey, conducted a 4-semester study to determine which factors resulted in student attrition and whether the factors that affected retention changed during the study period. The study population included 119 degree-seeking students who entered in January 1992 and who took the state's basic…

This longitudinal study was designed to ascertain if those teacher candidates (N=388) having failed to make or having made a more or less successful transition into the teaching field 7 years after the commencement of teacher preparation differed in academic aptitudes and academic abilities assessed upon commencement of teacher preparation. MANOVA…

This longitudinal study was designed to compare the academic, personal, and family characteristics of those teacher candidates persisting and not persisting through teacher preparation and the early years of classroom teaching. The candidates' (N=551) personal, family, and academic characteristics were collected upon commencement of teacher…

In 1989, a research project was initiated at Sacramento City College (SCC) to conduct a retrospective analysis of a sample of 400 continuing and entering students enrolled at SCC during fall 1987. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between academic success, basic skills assessment test scores and recommended placement levels,…

The study empirically examines the effects of economic and non-economic variables on college persistence by presenting a causal model that relies on both economic theory and V. Tinto's Student Integration Model in order to enhance an understanding of the role of finances on the college persistence process. Analyses conducted upon a sample of 466…

Two reports of student nonpersistence at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), are provided, taken from the Maryland Longitudinal Study. The first study, which examined four questions regarding students who become nonpersisters, found the following: nonpersisters had poor high school and first-semester study habits, were apt to have…

Predictors of attrition from the nursing profession among graduates of an associate degree nursing program at Lakeland Community College, Ohio, were investigated during 1970-1979, based on an earlier study that identified predictors of attrition from the degree program. Two groups were evaluated: 91 nursing graduates for whom both file record and…

The academic persistence of undergraduate students at Arizona State University was studied. Demographic and academic profiles were developed, and persistence rates were calculated for the overall population of 3,166 freshmen, and by gender and ethnicity. Additional demographic variables were residency status and age. The academic variables…

The applicability of Tinto's model of retention for first-year students attending church-related colleges and universities is examined. Data collected from entering freshmen at two Midwestern Seventh-day Adventist colleges were used to replicate studies of Tinto's model done in other settings. Based on Tinto's model, indicators of academic and…