Despite their aim to foster belongingness, a small percentage of incoming college students (1%-2%) report feeling excluded (not belonging) during their outdoor orientation program. Feelings of exclusion are often highly consequential to a person transitioning to college. This study explores the experiences of students reporting low levels of…

This longitudinal study examined the relationship between two content formats of the basic communication course (BCC) and first-year college student retention over a 4-year period (N = 5,653). Chi-square and logistic regression models indicated students who completed the BCC were more likely to be retained than those who did not complete the BCC.…

Organizational identification has gained popularity in the organizational sciences and has important implications for the experiences of new undergraduate business students. Researchers have focused largely on how characteristics of organizations influence organizational identification, but limited work has explored how characteristics of the…

This study explored student success practices of select community colleges as implemented during students' pre- and post-matriculation periods and whether those colleges have united them into a cohesive design. The pre- and post-matriculation timeframe has been identified as the most critical segment of the student's academic career (Acevedo-Gil…

In the context of a marketised higher education system, meaningful interpersonal connections remain of paramount importance to many students. Using a story-completion method, we examine how relationships impact upon students' experiences of higher education, and explore the importance of relational pedagogies. We draw upon data from a longitudinal…

College student retention is a complex phenomenon influenced by a myriad of factors and with wide-ranging implications for university function. First-year seminar is one approach to increase first-year student retention through involvement, engagement, and integration. This quantitative study examines the influence of first-year seminar on…

As the Latino population continues to grow in the United States, it is important for Latino youth, and specifically, Latino males, to obtain a college degree. As other demographic groups graduate from colleges and universities across the country, Latino males continue to lag behind their non-Latino peers in obtaining their college degrees.…

This report provides insights into the challenges and factors affecting first-year students' motivation and success as they enter college, including the significant mental toll from the pandemic and economic uncertainty. The findings in this report are taken from data collected in 2022 from nearly 80,000 student records of first- and second-year…

In response to extant literature on college students' sense of belonging that analyzes the concept as a relatively siloed phenomenon, this study offers a mixed methods exploratory analysis of college students' sense of belonging that examines multiple domains of college life simultaneously. Quantitative results reveal that students fall within…

The number of international students has grown at universities in the US. According to the Open Door Report (2020) published by the Institute of International Education, there were 1,075,496 international students in the US. In 2010, there were 723,277 international students in the US, According to the Open Door Report (2010). Many universities…

Although more students with disabilities are attending university than ever before, many still have difficulties with the transition from high school. Transition research has extensively examined the factors and barriers that support or hinder successful transitions for students with disabilities. However, there has been little explicit focus on…

Several authors (Bowman & Denson, 2014; Gilbreath et al., 2011) have claimed that measures of fit between a student and the institution they are attending should be useful for institutional decision-making. These student-institution fit instruments were originally developed for research with specific student populations in one institution, but…

This quantitative study analyzed more than 240 first-year freshmen from Generation Z at a rural, Midwest, four-year public higher education institution. The data included first-year college students and were categorized by domestic underrepresented or domestic non-underrepresented, first generation or non-first generation, and male or female.…

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact a Summer Bridge Program had on academically at-risk students who entered their first year of college. Additionally, this study looked at participants' and non-participants' involvement in extracurricular activities, students' sense of belonging to the college, and retention of first-year…

The personal tutor plays a key role in the student experience at university, and personal tutoring embodies the student relationship with the university, suggesting that it has the potential to provide insights beyond that specific relationship to the institution and higher education context. A focus session with first year undergraduate students…