An increasing portion of the U.S. population is interested in and enrolling in higher education, and colleges and universities across the country are responding and actively recruiting a wider variety of students than in the past to maintain if not increase enrollment (Holland 2015; Irlbeck et al. 2014). Many of these students are considered…

This explanatory sequential mixed methods study was designed to understand how underrepresented minority medical students perceive their interactions and relationships with their medical education faculty and how these perceived interactions associate with their academic self-efficacy. Data from URM medical students across medical schools based in…

Student enrollment at community colleges within the U.S. has remained flat or decreased for over a decade (AACC, 2019). Before COVID-19, community colleges had been experiencing a steady decline in enrollment for approximately ten years (Irwin et al., 2021). The purpose was to determine whether demographic, environmental, and academic variables…

Student loans have become a cornerstone of democratized access to higher education. This dissertation contributes a novel approach to conceptualizing the student loan issue: students as consumers--both of college and of the student loans themselves. Through a mixed-method in-depth study of a graduating cohort at a public flagship university, I…

A very large and important subgroup of student-athletes is ethnic minority in Title I high schools. Understanding the decision-making process of this subgroup is important to the high schools that prepare these students to enter college and to the colleges that recruit them. The college choice factors of 207 student-athletes at three Title I high…

This study attempted to contribute to national research on biracial/multiracial students, a growing diverse population in higher education. A lack of literature exists on biracial/multiracial college students, particularly as it pertains to student academic success at predominantly white institutions (PWI). The purpose of this study was to explore…