This paper compares freshmen who enrolled in the College Seminar at Ramapo College (a 4-year liberal arts college in New Jersey) with freshmen who have not taken the seminar. The seminar course includes units on higher education in America; study skills (e.g., writing papers, research skills, taking notes, time management, computer skills);…

A study was conducted at San Diego City College (SDCC) in California to evaluate the college's Critical Thinking and Writing Center, one of the components of SDCC's comprehensive plan to improve student outcomes. Five indicators of student success were examined for two semesters using a student tracking system: retention, semester-to-semester…

The changing nature of immigration, the job market, and the world economy preclude today's immigrants from full participation in the culture because they are without adequate education. This paper provides insights into one group of students that is most likely to have problems in school: immigrant pre-literate adolescents. It describes the…

American River College's (California) Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) project is a 2-year project initiated in 1992 to improve the retention and performance of minority students and others in math, biology, and chemistry through increased contact and involvement with their peers. PAL involves a cadre of 24 student Learning Assistants (LA's) who have…

A longitudinal study was conducted at William Rainey Harper College (WRHC), in Illinois, to observe the performance and achievement of students entering the college each fall from 1967 through 1986. Academic and personal data from transcripts were analyzed for randomly selected samples of 200 full- and 200 part-time students from each fall's…

In 1982-83, a study conducted at Mott Community College (MCC) identified 322 students, or 6% of the student body, as "grossly skill deficient," (i.e., achieving at the junior high school level or below in all basic skill areas). In November 1985, the transcripts of those 322 students were assembled and analyzed to determine enrollment patterns and…

Academic persistence at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB) was studied from fall 1979 through spring 1983. Attention was directed to the school's graduation rate and correlations between sex, race, major, grade point average (GPA) and persistence. Of the 1,043 students who were beginning freshmen in 1979, the study sample consisted of…

A path analysis of the relationship of student background, precollege academic factors, occupational and educational aspirations, institutional characteristics, college performance, and financial assistance to student persistence found that students receiving aid were more likely than others to complete their degrees, and that aid has the third…

This study, which is a companion to a study on 10-year enrollment and graduation patterns for new freshmen and transfers, sought to quantify how much more likely college students were to graduate if they were transfers, were enrolled continuously, were mostly full-time, and began their academic careers with good first-semester grade point averages…

A study at a university with strong mathematics/science curricula found that at matriculation, women and men had similar high school rank, women had lower mathematics test scores; most majored in science or engineering; women had higher undergraduate degree completion rates at four years; and grade point averages differed little. (MSE)

Project Success (PS) at California's Grossmont College provides students with concurrent enrollment in linked courses, such as College Reading and English Fundamentals, to provide an environment of complementary learning. To determine the effectiveness of the program, a study was undertaken to compare the demographics, performance, and persistence…

This study describes trends in student-athletes' academic performance before and after the passage of National Collegiate Athletic Association Proposition 48 which reformed initial-eligibility rules for student athletes, requiring that they have achieved minimum high school grade point averages (at least a 2.0 on a 4.0 system) in core courses and…

This report uses data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study of Special Education Students (NLTS) to examine four dimensions of school performance: (1) student engagement in their education, as measured by the average number of days of school missed in a year; (2) student learning, as indicated by their grade point averages, receipt of…

A 5-year longitudinal study was conducted in Illinois to follow 9,757 of the 10,273 students transferring from two-year colleges to senior colleges and universities in Illinois in fall 1979. The study sought to identify the number and mobility patterns of Illinois two-year college students; to investigate the pre-transfer characteristics of these…

The academic achievement and attrition of high school equivalency students attending Brandon University, a small undergraduate Canadian university, were studied, as were the students' reactions to college life. The students, who received a high school equivalency certificate after completing the Tests of General Educational Development (GED), were…