The purpose of this study was to investigate the involvement and integration factors that contribute to the persistence of international students. Persistence and retention are central to improving higher education, and individual student persistence as well as the rates at which students persist have direct ramifications on the university…

The prevailing theories of student persistence have been developed in Predominantly White Institutional (PWI) contexts. The extent to which these theories--in whole or in part--apply to Minority Serving Institutions such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) has not been studied in depth. This study tests a PWI-based theory of…

Student persistence is a popular topic with numerous published literature. However, few research studies in the field of higher education administration have focused on the comparison between freshmen and undergraduate transfer students about their persistence. The purpose of this study was to identify and compare the persistence factors between…

Faculty diversity has benefits for all students; however, increasing faculty diversity may be particularly helpful in reducing academic disparities for students of color. This study examines the impact of having a professor of the same race/ethnicity on student performance. A longitudinal model was tested to examine how campus racial/ethnic…

Since social connectedness is critical to student retention, colleges and universities have vested interest in identifying and providing assistance as early as possible. When students are struggling to fit in, a great deal of campus energy is invested in welcoming each new cohort of students and planning events to facilitate a sense of belonging.…

Based on interactionalist theory, we longitudinally examined first-year experience basic communication courses for students' social integration and academic outcomes. Participants completed measures of proactivity, instructor rapport, classroom connectedness, participation, self-regulated and peer learning, and likelihood to persist in college.…

The purpose of this study was to explore factors that predict the persistence of international, non-immigrant students in higher education. A sample of international students from a four-year private university in Georgia served as the focused population for this study. Persistence research asserts that six factors predict persistence: academic…

The present study investigated whether an integrative behavior for one student success outcome could be applied to another student success outcome. Braxton and colleagues (2013) state that student perception of the institution's commitment to student welfare influences the level of social integration by the student, which affects student…

The purpose of this article is to trace the development of the Tinto framework for student integration and to critically analyze the application of the framework with nontraditional student populations. Specifically, the terms "academic" and "social integration" have become synonymous with student retention and, by extension,…

While Tinto's (1975, 1987, 1993) Interactionalist Model has reached near paradigmatic status, and introduced the construct of social integration, the research has been inconsistent when applied to community college student retention. This has led Maxwell (2000) and Deil-Amen (2011) to suggest that a different construct of social integration exists…

With the increase in International students coming to the U.S. to study, it is important to look at their experiences and find out more effective ways of improving their perceptions and learning experiences in the U.S. The purpose of this study was to investigate and discover the factors that affect GPA (i.e., academic performance) and persistence…

Theoretical models designed to predict whether students will persist or not have been valuable tools for retention efforts relative to the creation of services in academic and student affairs. Some of the early models attempted to explain and measure factors in the "college dropout process." For example, in his seminal work, Tinto…

Grateful people experience more psychological well-being, social connectedness, and feelings of personal accomplishment, along with less burnout. They also use more adaptive approach-oriented coping strategies. Thus, we hypothesized that trait gratitude and grateful coping strategies would be associated with various indicators/predictors of…

The persistence of college students, particularly through credential attainment, is of importance to many stakeholders in higher education, including policymakers, taxpayers, parents and students. This dissertation study used longitudinal data nationally representative of higher education institutions and students, the National Center for…

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…