Why do college students persist with their education, especially when facing challenges? We answer this question by exploring the complexities surrounding college student retention, using the organizational research lenses of job embeddedness, normative pressures, and the unfolding model of turnover. We first developed a college embeddedness scale…

Prior research has explored how international students' interactions with domestic students and with other international students predict their self-reported short-term outcomes, particularly in the context of the environmental challenges that international students may encounter. The present study builds upon this earlier work by using…

Earning poor grades in early science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) college courses decreases the likelihood that a student will major in STEM. However, grades in first-year STEM courses do not impact students evenly, making it hard to know if early "gatekeeping" courses selectively push some students out of STEM. This…

In this study, we explored the alignment between initial transfer intent and subsequent course-completion patterns among 1,668 first-time STEM-aspiring students at two-year institutions. Using survey and transcript data, we conducted latent profile analysis and subsequent path analysis that revealed five distinct course-completion patterns:…

This study advances the understanding of college persistence by examining five dimensions of student learning in relation to second-year persistence. Two of the five dimensions of learning were found to be significant predictors of persistence, and each was moderated by social integration. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)

A set of variables termed "bicultural adaptive strategies" was formulated and tested for predicting Black students' (n=171) levels of adjustment to a predominantly White university. Findings suggest that the incorporation of variables reflecting Black cultural frame of reference is fruitful in studying Black student adjustment and retention.…

Asserting that graduation and stopout are "competing" or correlated events and that they often should be modeled as such, this study demonstrated that factors affecting timely graduation (e.g., financial aid) often have time-varying effects, and that ignoring these time-varying effects can lead to spurious conclusions that may result in…

Analysis of data from a longitudinal study of high-ability, college-bound minority students, based on Scholastic Assessment Test scores, determined the effects of background and school variables on status five years later. Commitment to science during the sophomore year and availability of minority support systems were among several important…

A study with 652 community college students investigated whether the relationship between intention to stay in or transfer from the institution and departure is moderated by semester grade point average, commitment, and encouragement to stay. Results show the interaction effects of intention by commitment, and intention by encouragement to stay,…