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The transition from high school to college can be a difficult and stressful experience for a student-athlete. University athletic departments across the country, in conjunction with the office of student life, implement transition programs in an attempt to assist freshmen with their new environment. The purpose of this study was to determine a head coach's role in the transition process between high school and college of a freshman student-athlete. Furthermore, the study sought to address to what extent a student-athlete could benefit from evaluating the effectiveness of the transition process. Fifteen participants from a large NCAA Division I swim program took part in this study in the fall of 2003. Each participant was officially recruited to attend the institution and was entering college for the first time. A two phase approach was utilized to obtain data on the swimmers' first three weeks in college and also their first semester in college. Each swimmer was interviewed after his or her first three weeks in school in a semi-structured environment. Each participant was asked the same series of questions. Each participant was also interviewed near the conclusion of his or her first semester and was asked a series of follow up questions. The data was analyzed utilizing qualitative methods. The results of the study indicated that a head coach has a critical role in assisting freshmen student-athletes in their program with the transition from high school to college. Student-athletes look to their head coach as a mentor who can affect the new environment, and thus the head coach is a significant factor in their transition experience. Further, a head coach should know the components of the transition programs offered by both the university and athletic department, and develop his or her own transition model to increase the chances of a well adjusted freshman student-athlete. The results of the study also indicated that a student-athlete can benefit from evaluating the effectiveness of a transition program annually. Universities, athletic departments, and coaches should make needed changes each year to address the specific needs of freshmen student-athletes entering college for the first time. / Ph. D.

The number of students attending public universities is increasing in the United States. These students are diverse in terms of age, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and academic abilities. Some are the first in their families to attend college. These varied backgrounds and experiences often result in students who are under-prepared for college. Increasing academic success and retention of students are a constant struggle at many institutions of higher education. The current study investigated the academic performance (GPA) and retention rates of freshmen students who were part of the mentoring program at Mississippi State University. The results indicated that students who were part of the mentoring program performed better academically and also were retained at a higher rate than that of those students were not part of the mentoring program. Incoming college freshmen need access to as many university resources as possible, such as mentoring to aid them in successfully acclimating both academically and socially. Efforts should focus on encouraging faculty interaction beyond the classroom via mentoring. This mentoring interaction will help incoming students not only with a higher GPA, but also with a better chance at remaining at college and ultimately graduating.

The problem with which this study was concerned was that of determining how the academic performance of entering college freshmen at Jarvis Christian College who participated in a summer preparatory and enrichment program would compare with the academic performance of entering college freshmen who did not participate in the program at the end of the school year.

The problem of this study was to compare freshmen students in a selected multicampus junior college district with respect to attitudes, activities, vocational, and educational plans.

The purposes of this study were first to determine if there were significant differences in living environment press, i.e., the pressure on an individual to behave in a certain way, between those fraternity chapters that had the highest freshman pledge retention rates and those that had the lowest. If significant differences were determined to exist, the second purpose was to investigate how those differences related to differences in the retention rates for freshman fraternity pledges. The data were obtained from the records of all freshman pledges in the Oregon State University fraternity system for a four-year period. From these data the high pledge retention and low pledge retention fraternities were determined. The sample for the remainder of this study was two of the three highest and two of the three lowest pledge retention fraternities. The highest and lowest pledge retention fraternities were eliminated. Analyses included: Pearson Correlation Coefficients to determine if there were significant correlations between retention of pledges in the fraternity system and six factors involving grades and the number of members and pledges living in the fraternities; two-way, fixed analyses of variance to determine if there were significant differences between the high retention fraternities (HRFs) and the low retention fraternities (LRFs) with respect to pledge high school grade point averages and Scholastic Aptitude Test scores; chi square contingencies to determine if there were significant differences between the HRFs and the LRFs with respect to 14 different characteristic, background, and satisfaction variables; and F-test analyses to determine if there were significant living environment differences between the HRFs and the LRFs on each of the subscales of the University Residence Environment Scale, Form R. The conclusions of the study were: 1. Neither high school nor college grades, SAT scores, nor individual characteristics, background, and satisfaction levels can be used to define differences in pledge retention between the HRF and LRF houses. 2. The differences within the living environment, and primarily the relationship dimension of that environment, of the two groups offer the best explanation of the pledge retention differences between the two groups. 3. The overt pressure exerted by the LRFs on their pledges to study and achieve academic success did not result in greater academic success than in HRFs, but did tend to limit the degree of social integration achieved by their pledges. 4. Social integration has a significant positive impact on pledge retention, while overt pressure toward academic integration has a probable negative impact on pledge retention. 5. Successful social integration, while having a positive impact on pledge retention, does not have a negative impact on academic performance. In fact, the impact on academic performance may be positive. 6. A crucial element in the Tinto (1987) model should be a relationship building block within the peer group interactin portion of the social system. Recommendations for further study were made. / Graduation date: 1991

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 209-221).

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