A four-year follow-up study comparing 73 gifted achievers and underachievers found all achievers attended college, were more sure of career directions, completed more years of college, and were more involved in campus activities, but did not report more satisfaction with life development since high school than underachievers. (Contains…

Identified and analyzed the college participation decisions of 13,000 eligible non-recipients of Tennessee state financial aid in fall 1999. Found that 81 percent were enrolled in higher education, but the negative effects of non-receipt of state aid and preexisting economic conditions were found in patterns of institution selection and in…

Followed the progress of eight cohorts of first-year college students taking an orientation course between 1986 and 1993. Found that, compared to students who did not take the course, they fared significantly better in retention, graduation rate, grade point average, and other satisfaction, participation, and skills measures. (EV)

Examined how students' enrollment responses to college costs--both in college choice and persistence decisions--vary by social class. Found substantial class-based patterns of enrollment behavior in response to prematriculation perceptions of college costs and actual postmatriculation costs, consistently restricting postsecondary opportunities for…

First-semester college students completed college transition courses which incorporated information on emotional, communication, and critical thinking skills. Their ability to understand, regulate, and harness emotions, and their retention rate, were higher than students completing a transition course lacking the emotional skills component. (EV)

Examined sophomore-year grades and retention of a group of African-American engineering students to determine if positive freshman-year effects of participation in a minority academic support program persisted. Found that although grades diminished with time, positive effects on retention remained. (EV)

A study examined the academic success rates of 484 high school students enrolled in Collegiate Connection (CC)--a high school/university dual enrollment program in the Fort Wayne (Indiana) area. The grades of CC students surpassed those of college freshmen in all seven courses where enrollments allowed meaningful comparisons. (Contains 26…

The importance of going to college has increased in the context of global competition and continuing stratification in society. Many strides have been made in encouraging students and parents to believe in the value of higher education, but the process of preparing for and applying to college is not easy. It requires making a variety of complex…

We conducted an archival study of at-risk students who had "stopped out" of college for many reasons (academic dismissal, financial problems, personal problems, etc.) and who later were accepted to return to school. Approximately 27% of the accepted students chose not to return. Those who returned had higher grade point averages, had completed…

The University 101 course seeks to create an attitude among freshmen that helps them appreciate the value of higher education, to point the way to university resources that will allow them to develop to their fullest potential, and thereby to cause more of them to survive the freshman year. This study of first-term freshmen at Tennessee…

This report on young persons' access to higher education in Scotland attempts to determine whether the incidence of students' transition from S4 to voluntary participation in S5 is influenced by the transitions that occur at the end of S5. The project analyzed data from a 10% sample of the S4 cohort of 1983/84. The central question examined…

College attendance by Italian and American women over age 30 is compared, and attention is directed to whether mature Italian and U.S. women who continue their education do so for similar reasons and whether they experience similar problems. The analysis is based on two studies of women over 30 in post-compulsory degree programs: (1) a study on…

This study reports findings from the National Longitudinal Survey of the high school class of 1972 concerning the influence of race, sex, social class and academic credentials on access to college. Results indicated that academic credentials were prime determinants of college access. However, the degree to which various types of credentials…

Attrition/retention of two cohorts of first-time, full-time degree students enrolled at the State University of New York was studied. Attrition is defined as the failure to achieve some goal or objective. Students enrolling in bachelor degree programs and in two-year degree programs in the fall of 1971 and 1972 were studied. Information on the…

The relationships between labor force behavior, marital status and college attendance decisions of women between the ages of 25 and 65 were investigated through a model, empirically tested using ordinary least squares, from the 1975 survey of adult education conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the National Institute of Education. From the…