This study describes course withdrawal behaviors in the Texas public higher education institutions and examines the predictors of course withdrawal by using statewide administrative datasets. The findings showed that two-thirds of the college students in the sample withdrew from at least one course, highlighting course withdrawal as a prevalent…

This study uses the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to examine the effect of childhood trauma experiences on college graduation rates. A longitudinal mediation path analysis with a binary logistic regression is performed using trauma as a mediator between race, gender, first-generation status and college completion. The…

Many students who enter college do not finish, reflecting numerous academic, financial, and social barriers to postsecondary completion. Success Boston Coaching (SBC) provides students in the Greater Boston area with coaching during their first 2 years of college to help them overcome barriers to postsecondary completion and connect them to…

The "k"-means clustering method, while widely embraced in college student typology research, is often misunderstood and misapplied. Many researchers regard "k"-means as a near-universal solution for uncovering homogeneous student groups, believing its success hinges primarily on the selection of an appropriate "k."…

In recent decades, female students have been more successful in higher education than their male counterparts in the United States and other industrialized countries. A promising explanation for this gender gap are differences in personality, particularly higher levels of conscientiousness among women. Using Structural Equation Modeling on data…

To date, most research on sense of belonging in higher education has relied upon between-person correlations (e.g., Murphy and Zirkel in Teach Coll Rec 117(12):1-40, 2015; Ostrove and Long in Rev High Educ 30(4):363-389, 2007). In the current study, first- and continuing-generation college students (N = 280) reported their sense of belonging and…

One issue that has received little attention is how students factor distance from home into their decisions about college. In this study, we used data from the Education Longitudinal Survey of 2002 (ELS:02) to examine the distances between a student's home and the colleges to which they applied, and how far from home they enrolled. We focused on…

Despite a robust body of literature about the choice of students' first postsecondary institution, we have little insight regarding transfer from four-year colleges and universities across socioeconomic groups. In this study, we argue that when entry to selective colleges reaches a heightened level of competitiveness, transfer may be employed by…

This study reports on the development and validation of a new construct of application orientation (AO), which we defined as a vocational orientation concerning the interest for certain principles, values, and activities that are common for university graduates working in applied (i.e., industrial) fields. Using a multi-study program with…

Online education has the potential to remove barriers and increase access to higher education, but previous studies have revealed mixed results regarding the effect of online enrollment on college students' academic outcomes. This study leverages novel administrative data and a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to examine the impact of online…

This study presents the results of a regression discontinuity empirical approach to investigate the effects of postseason bowl game participation on student-athlete academic outcomes and subsequent football team success. The practice expectations for student-athletes on football teams that participate in a bowl game increase by between two and…

Traditional research on the role of higher education in intergenerational mobility scrapes the surface of how complex institutional environments contribute to improved socioeconomic outcomes for students. Drawing from economics, sociology, and higher education research, this study interrogates the complexities of the relationship between students…

This study models reverse transfer, lateral transfer, and college withdrawal behavior for a national sample of students who began college at bachelor's granting institutions. Descriptive data illustrate statistical differences in the characteristics, habitus, early college experiences and supports, and institutional characteristics of students who…

The construction of the double first-class university is significant in China's higher education. However, the question of whether students' abilities are better developed at double first-class universities remains unanswered. Based on data from the 2019 Shaanxi University Graduates' Employment and Entrepreneurship Quality Tracking Survey, we…

It is potentially beneficial for all college students to have perspectives on identity and future connections to develop and maintain academic motivation. However, researchers have yet to examine probationary students' identity-based motivation (IBM) and perceived instrumentality (PI), and how those motivational constructs relate to their academic…