Influences on Community College Transfer Student Persistence at an Urban Public University

Influences on Community College Transfer Student Persistence at an Urban Public University PDF Author: Jessica Griffin Bumpus
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic dissertations
Languages : en
Pages : 147

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Book Description
In recent years, more students have opted to begin their collegiate career at the community college. Rising tuition rates, coupled with a declining economy in the United States, make the community college's lower cost, convenient location and flexible class schedules even more attractive, if not necessary, for many students (Cohen & Brawer, 2003, 2008). According to Cejda and Kaylor (2001), enrollment numbers at the community college are not just increasing in general, but these institutions are also experiencing an increase in the number of traditional college-aged students (18-24) enrolled, leading to an increase in the number of potential transfer students. However, only an average of 22% of community college students ever make the transfer to a four-year institution, even with interest or intent to transfer averages around 70% (Romano, 2004). The purpose of this study was to identify predictive factors of retention and persistence to graduation for in-state community college transfer students at a four-year public research university through the use of existing institutional student data. Demographic and transcript data were analyzed using logistic regression analysis to develop and validate a predictive model. Results of the analyses found that pre- and post-transfer grade point average (GPA), number of transfer hours, course withdrawals, grades of F at the four-year site institution, age at time of enrollment, academic major, and the number of community colleges attended were predictive within the three models of post-transfer outcomes of graduated at any time, graduated in two years, and graduated in four years.

Influences on Community College Transfer Student Persistence at an Urban Public University

Influences on Community College Transfer Student Persistence at an Urban Public University PDF Author: Jessica Griffin Bumpus
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic dissertations
Languages : en
Pages : 147

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Book Description
In recent years, more students have opted to begin their collegiate career at the community college. Rising tuition rates, coupled with a declining economy in the United States, make the community college's lower cost, convenient location and flexible class schedules even more attractive, if not necessary, for many students (Cohen & Brawer, 2003, 2008). According to Cejda and Kaylor (2001), enrollment numbers at the community college are not just increasing in general, but these institutions are also experiencing an increase in the number of traditional college-aged students (18-24) enrolled, leading to an increase in the number of potential transfer students. However, only an average of 22% of community college students ever make the transfer to a four-year institution, even with interest or intent to transfer averages around 70% (Romano, 2004). The purpose of this study was to identify predictive factors of retention and persistence to graduation for in-state community college transfer students at a four-year public research university through the use of existing institutional student data. Demographic and transcript data were analyzed using logistic regression analysis to develop and validate a predictive model. Results of the analyses found that pre- and post-transfer grade point average (GPA), number of transfer hours, course withdrawals, grades of F at the four-year site institution, age at time of enrollment, academic major, and the number of community colleges attended were predictive within the three models of post-transfer outcomes of graduated at any time, graduated in two years, and graduated in four years.

Student Success in College

Student Success in College PDF Author: George D. Kuh
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118046854
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description
Student Success in College describes policies, programs, and practices that a diverse set of institutions have used to enhance student achievement. This book clearly shows the benefits of student learning and educational effectiveness that can be realized when these conditions are present. Based on the Documenting Effective Educational Practice (DEEP) project from the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University, this book provides concrete examples from twenty institutions that other colleges and universities can learn from and adapt to help create a success-oriented campus culture and learning environment.

Assessing the Influence of Community College Course Selection Pathways on Transfer Student Persistence

Assessing the Influence of Community College Course Selection Pathways on Transfer Student Persistence PDF Author: Daniel S. Perry
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Academic achievement
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
The present study examined the impact of pre-transfer characteristics with a focus on course selection decisions at the community college, demographic variables including age, ethnicity and gender, and post-transfer college academic characteristics on variables for transferability of credits and two-year persistence. The sample included 2,006 transfer students entering a large public four-year institution from two of the top feeder community colleges over a period of four years. National Student Clearinghouse records and transcript analysis were used to code the percent of community college credits accepted for credit and enrollment two years following the first semester of matriculation at the four-year university as exogenous variables. Community college records were coded into categories corresponding to three "pathways" to transfer: completion of state-mandated core coursework, attainment of an associate degree prior to transfer, and alignment of coursework with major-specific pre-requisites included in transfer planning guides prepared by the four-year institution. A hypothesized path model developed based on the literature for community college transfer was not supported by the data. Kruskal-Wallis H test and logistic regression analyses were used to identify significant predictor variables for credit transfer and two-year persistence, including comparative analyses for the three pathways. Ethnicity and gender were not significant predictors of two-year persistence. Significant differences in persistence were found for class level and age at the time of transfer and multiple group analysis methods were used to sub-divide the sample. Results revealed that of the three pathways, only coursework alignment with transfer planning guides was a significant predictor for persistence. Other variables significant in predicting persistence included course completion ratio, transfer shock in the first semester, and transfer GPA. Findings for persistence varied across age groups and class level at matriculation.

Helping Sophomores Succeed

Helping Sophomores Succeed PDF Author: Mary Stuart Hunter
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470192755
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
Helping Sophomores Succeed offers an in-depth, comprehensive understanding of the common challenges that arise in a student's second year of college. Sponsored by the University of South Carolina's National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience® and Students in Transition, this groundbreaking book offers an examination of second-year student success and satisfaction using both quantitative and qualitative measures from national research findings. Helping Sophomores Succeed serves as a foundation for designing programs and services for the second-year student population that will help to promote retention, academic and career development, and personal transition and growth. Praise for Helping Sophomores Succeed "Lost, lonely, stressed, pressured, unsupported, frequently indecisive, and invisible, many sophomores fall off the radar of campus educators at a time when they may most be seeking purpose, meaning, direction, intellectual challenge, and intellectual capacity building. The fine scholars who focused educators on the first-year and senior transitions have done it again?a magnificent book to focus on the sophomore year!" ?Susan R. Komives, College Student Personnel Program, University of Maryland "For years, student-centered institutions have front-loaded resources to promote student success in the first college year. This volume is rich with instructive ideas for how to sustain this important work in the second year of college." ?George D. Kuh, Chancellor's Professor and director, Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research "A pioneering work, this brilliant text explores in practical and meaningful ways the all but neglected sophomore-year experience, when students face critical choices about their major, their profession, their life purpose." ?Betty L. Siegel, president emeritus, Kennesaw State University? "All members of the campus community?faculty, student affairs educators, staff, and students?will benefit from learning about the unique challenges of the second college year. The book provides research and best practices to help educators and students craft an integrated, comprehensive approach to helping second-year students succeed." ?Marcia Baxter Magolda, distinguished professor, Educational Leadership, Miami University The National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience® and Students in Transition supports and advances efforts to improve student learning and transitions into and through higher education by providing opportunities for the exchange of practical, theory-based information and ideas.

Social Capital, Socioeconomic Status, and Community College Transfer Student Persistence

Social Capital, Socioeconomic Status, and Community College Transfer Student Persistence PDF Author: Gregory Martin Bouck
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
American students are increasingly beginning higher education pursuits at community colleges before transferring to four-year universities. The purpose of this study was to identify differences in persistence rates between those students who participated in a transfer transition program and those who did not. The researcher adopted a mixed-methods modified replication research design that utilized the quantitative methodology of the original study being replicated, and extended findings with individual perspectives gained through qualitative inquiry. The study examined one cohort of community college transfer students who matriculated at a four-year university in the fall of 2010. Findings revealed that participation in the transition program investigated in this study had seemingly little effect on the persistence rates of transfer students. However, the study identified factors beyond transfer transition program participation that influenced student persistence. Personal interviews of community college transfer students revealed that precollege characteristics, academic integration, and social involvement and their related concepts of relationship building, course design, and learning communities each aided in student retention and persistence. Institutions of higher learning may utilize these findings in an effort to increase transfer student persistence.

Exploring How Community College Transfer Students Experience Connection in a Commuter University

Exploring How Community College Transfer Students Experience Connection in a Commuter University PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Commuting college students
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
Over the last 40 years, the expansion of the U.S. community college system resulted in a growing number of students choosing to begin their undergraduate education at a two-year institution and then transfer to a four-year institution. However, many students struggle to establish connection after transferring, especially if they transfer into a commuter university. For many college students, feelings of engagement and connection influence their persistence decisions. Using Tinto's and Astin's theories of student persistence as a framework, the purpose of this in-depth interview study is to explore how commuter community college students who transfer to Portland State University in Portland, Oregon experience connection to the university. This study also aims to identify how commuter community college transfer students become connected to PSU and how the connection experiences for these students change over time. This in-depth interview study explores the connection experiences of 14 commuter community college transfer students who transferred as college juniors. Students were at different points after transferring at the time of their interviews. This study suggests that commuter community college transfer students enroll at four-year universities with no intention of connecting to the institution. Instead, students initially focus on their academic progress. Students then establish instrumental relationships with faculty and classmates as needed in order to progress in their academics. Only once students establish strong connections with faculty and classmates do they begin to establish social relationships that provide additional forms of social support outside of the support they receive from their home social systems.

Timing is Everything: A Comparative Study of the Adjustment Process of Fall and Mid-Year Community College Transfer Students at a Public Four-Year University

Timing is Everything: A Comparative Study of the Adjustment Process of Fall and Mid-Year Community College Transfer Students at a Public Four-Year University PDF Author: Scott F. Peska
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Many four-year institutions accept community college transfer students at mid-year (i.e., second semester) to recuperate declines in fall semester enrollments (Britt & Hirt, 1999). Students entering mid-year may face unique challenges adjusting and find that the institutional support to assist in their adjustment that is available to students entering in the fall is missing in the spring. This comparative study aimed to explore and explain adjustment of community college transfer students who began in the fall and mid-year terms at a large, public, Midwestern, four-year university. Similar to others, this university admits nearly one in four of its community college transfer students in the spring semester (institutional data, 2006). Tinto (1993) regards the adjustment process as the first step of students becoming integrated in the university community and integration is known as a predictor positively associated with student persistence. Prior research indicates that students experience difficulty adjusting after transferring, which can influence their persistence and success (Laanan, 2001). Responses from 373 community college transfer students indicated that the adjustment to the research site produced several significant relationships between adjustment and the term transferred. Of most interest, mid-year students were less aware of institutional resources to aid in the transition and experienced a more difficult social adjustment, particularly because they did not attend or find campus activities they attended as helpful. To gain further insight additional data were collected from small group interviews and open-ended responses on the survey, which produced 569 statements that were cluster coded (Miles & Huberman, 1994) into 32 clusters of the three primary categories of adjustment (social, academic, and personal).. These data suggested there were distinct differences largely in the social and personal adjustment categories between fall and mid-year transfer students. A cluster that emerged was term of entry, indicating mid-year transfer students did perceive their adjustment as harder than experienced by students who started in the fall. This study contributes to the literature on community college transfer student adjustment and increases awareness about how time of transfer influences that adjustment process.

An Examination of Individual and Organizational Characteristics Influencing Persistence for Community College Transfer Students at the University of Michigan-Dearborn

An Examination of Individual and Organizational Characteristics Influencing Persistence for Community College Transfer Students at the University of Michigan-Dearborn PDF Author: Greta N. Anderson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description


Effects of MeritaAid on Transfer Student Time to Degree at a Four-year, Urban, Public University

Effects of MeritaAid on Transfer Student Time to Degree at a Four-year, Urban, Public University PDF Author: Liza Lagman Sperl
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Community college students
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Given the increasing number of community college students aspiring to complete a bachelor0́9s degree and the decrease in traditional college-bound high school graduates universities have started to focus their attention on the recruitment and retention of transfer students. The institution in this study is a large public research institution located in a Midwestern metropolitan area. Ninety-nine (99) scholarship recipients were matched with a group of similarly qualified non-scholarship transfer students to determine whether or not receiving a merit scholarship valued at $10,000 per year for two years had any effect on retention and graduation. The scholarship students did seem to have a slight advantage in terms of graduating within the two-year time span of the scholarship and in greater numbers than the control group. Transfer GPA at the time of matriculation to the university was the strongest predictor of graduation, but more empirical research is needed. Implications for higher education and areas for further study are discussed.

Indicators of Persistence and Success of Community College Transfer Students Attending a Large, Urban University in Pennsylvania

Indicators of Persistence and Success of Community College Transfer Students Attending a Large, Urban University in Pennsylvania PDF Author: Peggi Munkittrick
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which completion of Temple University's Core-to-Core articulation agreement requirements improves transfer students' likelihood to persist and to obtain a baccalaureate degree . Additionally, demographic variables (age, gender, ethnicity, financial aid eligibility), pre-enrollment variables (transfer GPA, transferable credits, Core-to-Core participation, educational intent, class standing, and community college attended), and enrollment variables (enrollment status, GPA trend, credits per semester, number of semester enrollments, and final GPA) were examined in order to determine whether they had any validity in predicting baccalaureate degree attainment. The study used an institutional case study design with historical data as the foundation for a multivariate analysis. The study population included 5419 students who transferred to Temple University between the Fall 1998 and Spring 2002 semesters. from one of eleven local community colleges that participated in Temple's Core-to-Core transfer program. A causal-comparative methodology was used to study the two groups - persisters and non-persisters. Descriptive statistics provided a picture of each group of students, while Chi-square and logistic regression analyses were used to determine the demographic, pre-enrollment, and enrollment variables that had the strongest ability to predict academic persistence. The Chi-square analyses presented a very detailed picture of the persisters and non-persisters. As a group, enrollment variables were the strongest predictors of baccalaureate degree attainment. However, the independent variables that were most significant and also the most meaningful were the number of semesters for which a student registered, final GPA, enrollment status (full-time/part-time), average number of credits per semester, GPA trend, and financial aid eligibility. A logistic regression analyses was then used to examine the predictive factors for baccalaureate degree attainment after eliminating several variables due to multicollinearity concerns and due to the complexity introduced with variables containing multiple nominal responses. The results were highly significant with 22.6% of the variance accounted for, indicating that the students who have a higher probability of graduating demonstrate a pattern of increasing GPA from initial transfer to graduation, have a higher transfer GPA, attend Temple University on a full-time basis, have taken advantage of Temple's Core-to-Core transfer program are eligible for financial aid, and are female.