College completion, earning a degree or certificate, is considered to be a key college success outcome, supported by every educational policymaker. Yet, institutions and policymakers in the U.S. know surprisingly little about the rates of completion for students who follow all but the most traditional of postsecondary pathways. This is because…

Results from the analyses of data from 463 former college students between the ages of 25 and 34 years old identify those most likely to reenroll in higher education in the near future. Those who intend to reenroll are more likely to be members of minority groups, younger, single, and recently laid-off, have earned more credits, and hold strong…

Taking a gap year--a break between high school and university--is becoming increasingly popular with Australian students. In terms of length and purpose, the traditional notion of a gap year being a year off between school and university has expanded considerably over time. For the purposes of the analysis reported in this paper, a person who…

Using a competing risks event history model this study explores the effects of differentiated forms of financial aid on the postsecondary enrollment patterns of Latino college students in Indiana. Much of the prior research on financial aid has employed cross-sectional methods, which assume that the effects of aid do not vary across time. This…

Despite popular conceptions of the "gap year" as a time of personal enrichment, the incidence of delay between high school and college is greatest among students from socioeconomically disadvantaged families, suggesting other motivations. This article examines two explanations for socioeconomic inequalities in rates of delay: disparities in high…

What is the meaning of Korean women's career-leaving experience? To answer this question, this study adopted a hermeneutic phenomenology approach. My intention was to search for the deeper meaning of Korean women's career-leaving experience from their perspective. Ten Korean women who had left their careers due to their domestic roles in their…

As the number of nontraditional-age students grows on college campuses, it is essential for higher education practitioners to understand if and how older students, especially women, become and remain engaged in their education. A review of the educational engagement literature reveals images of disengaged adult learners whose work and family…

This study examines the bachelor's degree attainment among students who first matriculate in four-year institutions but who then transfer to other four-year institutions. It constitutes a contribution to the research that has primarily studied transferring students who start at two-year colleges. This study uses Heckman's two-step model to correct…

Students in the United States change schools often, and frequent changes are associated with poor outcomes along numerous dimensions. These moves occur for many reasons, including both promotional transitions between educational levels and nonpromotional moves. Promotional student mobility is less likely than nonpromotional mobility to suffer from…

Graduate students across the world in higher education have self-selected themselves into their chosen degree programs, and each student tends to be assigned an advisor, or multiple advisors, to assist them through these programs. Graduate students tend to be self-directed and read most, if not all, of the literature supplied by an institution to…

The "gap year" is defined as a time between the end of school and the beginning of further studies in which young people engage in a variety of activities, including paid or voluntary work. "Gapping" is a significant trend globally for young people deferring formal study after completing school, before commencing further or…

This article critically examines the effects of chance, turning points and periods of routine on the careers of ten male returners to further education. Chance is an under-theorised influence on career development and there is also a dearth of qualitative data on this phenomenon. The qualitative data I present demonstrate that chance events can…

We identify "tenacious persisters" as returning students who have stopped out of college or who delayed their entry into college for more than three years after high school. Using a mixed method approach, we compare the experiences of tenacious persisters enrolled in a community college to students who followed more standard persistence paths.…

Every year a large percentage of the former students who respond to the Diploma, Associate Degree, and Certificate Student Outcomes (DACSO) Survey say they have taken previous post-secondary education, and more than half of those students report that they have completed a previous credential. The purpose of this paper is to look at these former…

In this longitudinal study of 11,317 students, the retention and graduation rates of students with apparent and nonapparent disabilities were compared to students without disabilities. The annual retention and graduation rates (six years after matriculation) were similar for all students, regardless of the presence or absence of a disability…