Ph.D. training is an important mechanism for developing scientists who will serve our knowledge-based society. Because the quality of students who join Ph.D. programs significantly impacts the outcome of Ph.D. training, students' career choices at this initial stage--whether to proceed to Ph.D. or not--are of crucial interest. This study…

First-year seminars (FYS) are well-tested and trusted programs to facilitate students' transition to college. This study adds to the body of evidence about the value of seminars through analysis of a large multi-institution dataset and documentation of the positive association between participation in a first-year seminar and student engagement in…

Persistently low graduation rates continue to leave educators in search of ways to promote the success of college students. One understudied factor that scholarship has linked to student persistence and success is students' confidence in their major and career paths--their major and career self-efficacy (MCSE). Ways to increase students' MCSE in…

In this book, the authors bring together in one place essential information about college students in the US in the 21st century. Synthesizing existing research and theory, they present an introduction to studying student characteristics, college choice and enrollment patterns, institutional types and environments, student learning, persistence,…

Contribution: This paper shows that identification with engineering for engineering graduate students is positively and significantly predicted by engineering interest, competence, recognition, and interpersonal skills competence. Background: Prior studies of engineering identity on undergraduates identified several factors (e.g., engineering…

Theoretical modeling has been a widely used tool in the student persistence literature for many years; however, only recently has it been applied to the Historical Black College or University (HBCU) context in an intentional way. We investigated a theory of student persistence in commuter institutions at 2 commuter HBCUs (N = 147 students).…

This article reviews relevant research that provides context for a commentary by two long-time distance counselor educators and supervisors with over 35 years of combined professional experience. The authors explore factors that support successful outcomes for graduate students within distance counselor education programs, which include how…

Colleges and universities have a commitment to improve the student experience, increase persistence, and provide paths to degree completion. Course redesign, focused on student success, is a promising strategy for realizing that commitment. This article examines some of the particulars when course redesign is explicitly linked to student success.…

This qualitative study describes the experiences of 16 successful first-generation college students (FGCS) utilizing a theoretical lens, informed significantly by bioecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), which guided our qualitative analyses of interview transcripts to examine the activities, roles, and relationships of these students…

"Preserving Culture and Planning for the Future: An Exploration of Student Experiences at Tribal Colleges" aims to share a narrative of the students who attend these unique institutions. Over 1,000 students across 25 tribal colleges responded to the 2017 Survey of Entering Student Engagement ("SENSE"), which collects…

This evaluation case study explores the impact of the An Achievable Dream social, academic, and moral program on college student's performance in college. Through this study, the researcher was able to provide insight on college student and college student advocates perceptions of An Achievable Dream's social, academic, and moral program's impact…

This study considers the scales previously used by Nora, Kraemer, and Itzen (1997) and Torres (2006) as contributing to the retention of Latino/a college students. T-tests were used to compare the scale means between students with an identified advisor or mentor and those that have not identified one. The data is from Latino college students at…

Factors that influenced the college choice and persistence of twenty-eight undergraduate, second-year students at religiously-affiliated institutions associated with the churches of Christ were examined using a cross-case comparative qualitative analysis. Student pre-college characteristics and campus environment factors were also investigated…

Using the institution as the unit of analysis, this chapter examines persistence rates for hundreds of institutions that have administered National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). A model predicting persistence with institutional and aggregated student characteristics was used to determine two groups of institutions: those that are doing…

In recent years, there has been heightened awareness of the importance of early childhood education and high school as intervention points in the educational lives of America's children. Less attention has been paid to the importance of the upper elementary grades and middle school and the role they must play in the preparation of students for…