Student retention is of policy significance to higher education systems. In the United States, student retention is a major problem in higher education affecting students, universities, and society. Most of the research on student retention has focused on first-year students. Little is known about the retention of college students after their first year.
The primary purpose of this study was to determine the influence of selected demographic and academic characteristics on the decision of traditional-age, undergraduate students to re-enroll at a research-extensive university.
The population was defined as all traditional-age undergraduate students who entered the selected university during the fall 2005 semester. A total of 16 independent variables were collected from admissions and student aid databases and transferred to a computerized, recording form that served as the research instrument.
Using stepwise multiple discriminant analysis, the researcher identified a significant model that increased the researchers ability to accurately explain the retention status of traditional-age, undergraduate students. The model correctly classified 86.7% of the cases, which was a 39.3% improvement over chance. The researcher recommended further studies to increase the percentage of correctly classified cases by integrating these variables with others to further explain retention status. Variables suggested were: a more detailed examination of the students financial aid portfolio; students GPA during their second and subsequent semesters of enrollment; students involvement in other student activities and organizations; and survey and/or focus group data regarding the perceptions of enrollment management personnel.
The researcher further found that many non-retained students entered the study institution with very good high school academic records, contrary to previous studies. The researcher recommended further study to determine why students with strong academic credentials leave college before their third year. The researcher suggested the use of exit interviews of students leaving the university.
The researcher also found that a small portion of the retained students received one of the universitys five major academic scholarships. There is strong evidence to suggest that scholarships have a significant influence on student retention. The researcher recommended that the study institution seek more funding to increase the number of scholarships to award to incoming students.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-08292008-085519 |
| Date | 16 September 2008 |
| Creators | Lutta, Joseph M. |
| Contributors | Curtis Friedel, Satish Verma, Geraldine Johnson, Michael F. Burnett, Charles Teddlie |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-08292008-085519/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0023 seconds