Is early enrollment in a qualified first-year seminar (FYS) positively associated with second-year retention rates of new community college students? A large mid-Atlantic community college (MAC) believes that it is, and this belief is the basis for the hypothesis being tested in this research. Beginning in 2010, new first-time college and…

To increase persistence, many universities provide first-year seminars (FYS) for entering students. Although there have been consistent positive outcomes for FYS participants, many times, the research is based on short-term outcomes, or less rigorous analysis. This study assessed short- and long-term outcomes for Hispanic (n = 456) and Hispanic…

Persistence of first-year, full-time students toward graduation at U.S. community colleges poses concerns for administrators, faculty, and policymakers. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of faculty members teaching a college success seminar at an urban multicampus community college on what impedes or supports the persistence…

Student retention is a major concern for many universities. We use observational data from a regional university located in Alabama to test whether taking a first-year seminar improves student retention rates. Using a linear probit model, we find that taking a first-year seminar course is negatively correlated with retention rates, after…

There are more STEM jobs than there are qualified graduates to fill these positions, and recruiting students into STEM majors is insufficient. Of students who enter college intending to pursue STEM, nearly half do not finish their STEM degrees. In this article, we focus on retaining students who enter college with a declared biology major. This…

The first-year seminar (FYS) has been widely implemented at colleges and universities as a strategy for facilitating student success. However, empirical evidence indicates that the observed effects of FYS on retention and academic performance are mixed. Drawing on data from first-time full-time degree-seeking cohorts from Fall 2010 through Fall…

Concern about graduation rates in higher education has led universities to offer courses that help students develop success skills. Scientist Life Skills, a new course for freshman at Florida A&M University, focuses on helping students matriculate into majors via development of growth mindset, grit, and critical thinking. Here, we assessed the…

First-year seminar (FYS) courses tend to focus on preparing students for successful academic and social integration into the college environment. Many of the studies on FYS courses focus on measuring outcomes such as college grades, retention, and graduation rates. While there is notable documentation of several different types of FYS courses,…

Attrition rates for first year students enrolled in community colleges remains high and results in poor first to second year retention and overall poor retention. The average national attrition rate remains averages 38% resulting in poor retention and completion rates for students enrolling in community colleges (NCES, 2019). To address the issue…

While college enrollments in the United States increased significantly throughout most of the 20th century, graduation rates plateaued toward the end of the century and have remained relatively flat since then. Low college graduation rates are a problem and are applicable to all students in the United States, but they are particularly low for…

To examine the relationship between participation in a research-based, academic first-year seminar (FYS) and the first-year achievement of STEM students, university data sets were collected from four cohorts (N = 2,543) of incoming STEM students of whom 581 were FYS participants over the four years. Chi-square tests of homogeneity were used to…

Although higher education leaders have established goals to increase the number of women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, first-generation female college students remain underrepresented in STEM majors. Astin's (1970) inputs-environment-outputs (I-E-O) theory of student development provided a framework to examine how…

The Effective Team Dynamics (ETD) Initiative at Georgia Tech developed curriculum to improve function of student teams. ETD uses the language of CliftonStrengths® to help students identify the areas in which they are the strongest and to apply those strengths to interpersonal contexts. ETD has developed curriculum for five "Touchpoints,"…

The purpose of this single phenomenological case study was to examine the importance of an FYE or College 101 seminar and why this topic matters to Latinx students' success. The research took place in a two-year Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) located in the Southwest part of the United States. The overarching question was: "How can…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore and understand the reasons why community college music majors choose to persist, leave the major, or leave college, and what effects a first-year seminar designed specifically for music majors might have on their intent to persist.A questionnaire was used to compare the likelihood of…