This quantitative study examined grit and hope scores with a population of first-year Science, Technology and Engineering (STEM) students. The researcher strived to understand if higher grit and hope scores correlate with higher grade point averages (GPA) and persistence in STEM among first-year STEM students enrolled in a mid-sized, suburban,…

Despite a multitude of possible explanations for racial and ethnic group differences in collegiate achievement, scholars have continued to call for new research and theories to better explain this ongoing phenomenon. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to investigate the relationship between grit, racialized campus experiences, and college…

Scholarship on first-year seminar (FYS) courses is rapidly growing and diversifying. However, the available knowledge, for the most part, remains fragmented and limited to only one institutional setting, seminar type, or student group. Accordingly, this meta-synthesis was designed to examine 2 decades of research on FYS courses to determine the…

College writing center practices differ greatly from the types of conventional writing instruction students and faculty are used to in classrooms. While conventional college lectures typically lead to a summative assessment in the form of grades based on students' performance on high-stakes assignments, writing centers are seen as tutoring centers…

As they navigate the social and academic expectations of a new college, transfer students commonly suffer "transfer shock," or a sudden drop in GPA. However, little is known about why some students suffer transfer shock, why some bounce back, and the consequences in terms of student retention. This analysis of over 25,000 transfer…

Great Expectations is a Virginia Community College System program for youth who were in foster care after the age of 13. Foster youth enter college with multiple disadvantages, including being less academically prepared compared to their peers and often lacking social support for their education. A program evaluation was conducted at a specific…

Individual differences are important predictors of academic success. A sense of purpose in life is gaining increasing attention as a key individual difference factor to foster in university students. The current study examined whether a sense of purpose in life, a dispositional tendency to pursue goals and activities in line with one's overarching…

The few existing studies in international literature about students with learning disabilities' postsecondary persistence and academic performances show varied outcomes. Rigorous research has been limited. Moreover, in Italy there is a dearth of public data on students' careers and clearly a deficiency regarding literature on this topic. To tackle…

The purpose of this quantitative research study was to determine if differences exist in academic achievement based on student SES as measured by grade point average (GPA), credit hours earned, and completion of the academic year for rural community college students enrolled during the 2018-19 academic year. The study used existing data from a…

Students coming into college lack the basic non-cognitive skills necessary for success in higher education. As a result, many students struggle in their early courses. Most college admissions focus on cognitive measures such as high school grade point averages (GPA) and high-stakes exams; however, these factors alone are not the sole predictors of…

First-year seminar courses have become increasingly popular for colleges and universities as they are expected to help aid in the transition to college and help students persist to graduation (Culver & Bowman, 2020). Utilizing pre-existing data from the Office of Institutional Research Effectiveness and Planning (IREP), the…

The study explored the relationship between how many student success programs and which programs first-year students of color at the University of Kansas (KU) participated in and how this was related to outcomes of retention to sophomore-year and first-year GPA. The study used data from the University of Kansas of students of color who…

Transfer students comprise half of all undergraduate students, yet their educational experiences may differ in meaningful ways from those of traditional students. Importantly, the transfer student population is diverse and not monolithic. Achievement emotions, which occur in an iterative pattern with past experiences informing current and future…

Critics of developmental studies suggest that remedial courses may negatively influence a student's program selection, persistence, and completion because remedial classes do not count toward graduation requirements (Long & Boatman, 2013). They have also found that over half of the students referred to remediation do not complete the courses…

Student success courses are a common strategy for addressing student retention in higher education. Though the literature implies positive effect on student outcomes, few studies have explored factors contributing to their efficacy, especially within the community college context. The purpose of this modified Delphi study was to identify essential…