This study examined the longitudinal persistence behavior of first-time, nontraditionally aged students at four-year institutions by leveraging the 2004 to 2009 Beginning Postsecondary Student data set. A human capital theory framework was employed to assess how student background characteristics, enrollment characteristics, and financial factors…

Objectives/Research Question: This study aims to explore who transfers between 2-year colleges (lateral transfer students) and how these students fare in terms of degree attainment. More specifically, this research explores two research questions: (1) What are the predictors of lateral transfer? (2) Is lateral transfer associated with degree…

Evidence of inefficient course-taking patterns at community colleges has spurred policy conversations about how to ensure effective course sequences. Structural reforms, like guided pathways, seek to reduce major switching as a means to streamline student course taking and eliminate unnecessary credits. By placing students into broad fields of…

Youth who were in foster care as adolescents make up a small but highly vulnerable subpopulation of the college student body. This article analyzes secondary data collected from one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies of foster youth. The analytic sample includes 329 foster youth from three Midwestern states who attended college in the…

Objective: This study examined how a set of theoretically derived factors predicted the educational attainment outcomes of Latina/o community college students. The guiding research question was, "What precollege and background characteristics, college experiences, and environmental pull factors uniquely predict persistence, certificate or…

Because of increasing mobility among various college student populations, both the baccalaureate degree attainment of community college beginners and the role played by their receiving 4-year institution are growing in importance. In this study, we examined how the academic and social involvement of community college transfer students differs by…

Drawing upon the latest data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/09) and the Postsecondary Education Transcript Data (PETS:09), this study employed propensity score matching and postmatching logistic regression to estimate the extent to which postsecondary coenrollment affects persistence and attainment of students…

The underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is a complex problem that continues to persist at the postsecondary level, particularly in computer science and engineering fields. This dissertation explored the pre-college and college level factors that influenced undergraduate women's persistence in…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of academic variables (e.g., grade point average, major change, informal meetings with faculty) on six year persistence and attainment among black male students in community colleges. Data was collected from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study and was analyzed using…

Developmental education has been cited as one of the most difficult issues facing community colleges. Despite the controversy and changes to educational policy regarding developmental education, there is a notable dearth of rigorous research measuring the causal effect of remediation on community college student outcomes. The present study uses…

The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of employment on first-to-second-year persistence of low-income, first-generation college students. Using the data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/06), the analysis indicated that the role orientation to academics versus to work was the strongest predictor of…

In 2007-2008, approximately 42% of community college students who were eligible to receive Pell grant funding did not file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Using data from the Beginning Postsecondary Student Study, this study examined the relationship between FAFSA filing status and persistence from the fall to spring…

Estimating the persistence of first-time students from the first year to the second year of college is a growing social and financial concern. Studying how socioeconomic status affects year-to-year persistence may help to identify and assist those students who have socioeconomic profiles most likely to indicate challenges to year-to-year…

The authors used the data from the "Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study" survey (BPS:04/06) to (a) examine the characteristics of the national sample of college students with disabilities and (b) identify the factors that influenced their first-to-second-year persistence in U.S. postsecondary institutions. Students with…

The effects of financial aid on persistence to Bachelor's degree were studied using data from the national longitudinal Beginning Postsecondary Student Survey for 1989-90 freshmen. The subsample of 3,188 students were enrolled full-time in four-year institutions; persistence was defined as attainment of the Bachelor's degree from the institution…