Academic and career plans and experiences of students in their freshman and senior years were compared. The 280 students first entered the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY/B) in the fall semester of 1976 and graduated in the spring of 1980. Students were administered the College Student Perceptions Survey and a followup survey, which…

The influence of the first year of college on the development of critical thinking was assessed. Matched groups of students who attended and who did not attend college were compared on the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal over a 1 year period. Secondary school level of thinking and other covariates (e.g., aptitude, socioeconomic status,…

Summary findings are presented on research about the impact of college in order to identify key issues related to understanding the lives of individual students. Five perspectives are offered: Bowen's outcomes and goals; Feldman and Newcomb's student personality, values, and beliefs; Pace's achievement testing; Astin's longitudinal studies; and…

Views of U.S. adults concerning colleges and universities were surveyed in 1982, and comparisons were made for college graduates, persons who attended but did not graduate from college, and persons who never attended college. Of 4,200 adults 18 years old and older who were mailed questionnaires, 1,188 responded. The data were weighted to make…

Accessibility to a college education in Ontario, Canada, was assessed by studying the pattern of acceptances and rejections of various choices made by unregistered college applicants. Study concerns included: total offers to programs of choice from any college and from an Ontario college only; offers by institution type and program type for first…

In spring 1984, almost 8,000 students, who were enrolled in 42 different college-credit telecourses, were surveyed to determine the students' background, how they learned about telecourses, and how they intended to view programs. Data from the study were tabulated by state, course type, and selected individual courses and were cross-tabulated and…

Previous studies by the Manitoba Post-Secondary Research Reference Committee have indicated a substantial group of high school students who, although they had indicated a 40% or greater chance of going on to post-secondary education the next fall, did not enroll. This group, although academically qualified, had experienced circumstances which…

In summer 1980, William Rainey Harper College (WRHC) experienced a 35% increase in its full-time equivalent enrollment. A survey was commissioned to determine whether this increase was temporary and related to the economy and whether a similar increase could be expected for the fall. A quasi-random sample of 19 sections from the first eight-week…

Characteristics of students who withdrew from the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Oswego during 1975-76 were studied to determine if previously studied trends are continuing. Data are provided on the withdrawal rate for each undergraduate class, by sex, and by college major. The size of the freshman class and the numbers of degrees…

Methods of the 1976-77 Expanded Eligibility Survey, which was conducted for the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California System, are described. The survey was undertaken as a supplement to the 1976 High School Eligibility Study. A subsample of the 1976 Eligibility Study graduates was mailed questionnaires to determine…

Data concerning first-time students at Tidewater Community College were examined to identify changing trends among certain student subgroups. Longitudinal data on first-time students, collected each fall quarter between 1973-77, were incorporated in the analyses. A series of contingency tables were developed to represent numerous demographic and…

Institutional and individual determinants of adult participation in higher education are examined. By means of an ordinary least squares regression, the 1970 degree-credit college enrollment of a sample of 57,689 married men and women 25 or older living in metropolitan areas was predicted. Being a Vietnam veteran tripled the likelihood of a male's…

Examined whether use of campus facilities was related to student retention in 100 white, 78 black, and 29 international students. Results suggest that use of campus facilities is related to retention for students, and for black students in particular. Library use was related to retention for all groups, use of nonacademic facilities was…

Stepwise discriminant analysis coupled with logit regression analysis of freshmen data from Brandon University (Manitoba) indicated that six tested variables drawn from research on university dropouts were useful in predicting attrition: student status, residence, financial sources, distance from home town, goal fulfillment, and satisfaction with…

Current school finance policy in Nebraska rests on the premise that higher costs due to small school size should not be subsidized by state funds unless there is no consolidation alternative. This report aims to reframe the school size debate by demonstrating the excellent performance of Nebraska's small schools in high school completion and…