Student attrition is a major problem for American colleges and universities because an increasing number of enrollees fit the demographic and socioeconomic profile of "high-risk" students, who consist in general of minorities, the academically disadvantaged, the disabled, and those of low socioeconomic status. Declining enrollments leave institutions with unused building capacity, increased costs per student, funding difficulties, and increasing pressure to lessen the difficulty of the curriculum, thus undermining the school's academic significance. Understanding attrition and risk is critical to achieving success among the high-risk group by the 21st cdntury. Most students begin school with positive attitudes; however, differences in race, gender, and social class often begin to emerge in early childhood education and increase through high school and college. Through negative conditioning, such as prejudice and lack of understanding among teachers towards the "different" student, low self-esteem is unintentionally created and nurtured. This low self-esteem can in time force students to "cooperate" with forces that create antisocial behavior and influence the drop-out mentality when circumstances become difficult to deal with. High-risk students must be challenged to develop academic and non-academic skills and competencies associated with success in college, and teachers, counselors, and administrators must persist in seeing that programs are completed through appropriate nurturing behavior. Contains five references. (GLR)