The Student Assistants' Program (SAP) was implemented at Bronx Community College (BCC) (New York) to reduce attrition between admission and the first day of classes. The principal objective of the program is to train presently enrolled students to provide individual assistance to entering freshmen. These student assistants help new students with…

Valencia Community College in Florida developed a holistic approach to improve student retention during the period October 1987 through September 1992. Two of the major thrusts of the retention project were the development of an extended orientation course about student success (SLS 1122) and the development of a faculty mentoring program. Study…

A study examined gender differences in 180 college freshmen's development of purpose, mature relationships, academic autonomy, and relationships with freshman seminar instructors. Results indicate significant differences in male and female students' patterns of psychosocial development. The gender mix in the mentoring dyad also appeared to have…

First year students perceive their transition to college in a variety of ways. They may look at their first year as a new beginning or chapter in their lives; as either gaining or losing status; as confusing, challenging, or enlightening; or as a pleasant or unpleasant experience. Because these students are "simultaneously trying to adapt to…

Concern about retention and attrition rates in higher education have increased over the years and efforts to identify and treat potential dropouts have grown considerably. Studies investigating the retention and attrition of community college students have found specific characteristics related to outcomes, including full- or part-time attendance,…

The product of a research symposium on the induction process for beginning vocational teachers, this document contains the following papers: (1) "On Becoming a Teacher" (William G. Camp, Betty Heath); (2) "Overview of Beginning-Teacher Induction Process" (Randol G. Waters); (3) "Mentoring as a Component of Induction" (Julie M. Johnson); (4)…

Reviews the literature on the reasons that students drop out of college. Offers a plan for freshman retention that asks students about their goals at registration, provides them with a six-hour orientation emphasizing academic excellence, teams them with a faculty mentor, and includes a mandatory for-credit seminar on attending college. (DMM)

Interviews with 66 students, faculty, and administrators in ten departments of a large public research university revealed a number of factors instrumental in integrating first-year students successfully into graduate programs: a structured departmental orientation complementing the university-wide orientation; a culture of collegiality;…

During recent years, colleges and universities have developed first-year seminars for students entering as freshmen, and some of these seminars are linked with disciplinary courses in a learning community. For 2 years, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has had a one-credit-hour university orientation course entitled…

This project report describes the participation of South Mountain Community College (SMCC), in Phoenix, Arizona, in the Ford Foundation's Urban Community Colleges Transfer Opportunities Program, and the activities developed at the college to guide students from the beginning of their college careers at SMCC through their transfer and retention at…

The purpose of this report is to provide information on the outcomes of the Intervention for College Attendance Program, a program of competitive grants awarded to postsecondary institutions, professional organizations, and community-based organizations. Prior to the 2008-09 biennium, the program focused on provision of college awareness and the…

Georgia State's minority retention program provides academic and social support for black freshmen by referral to appropriate campus personnel or resources for assistance with academic, financial, personal, social, and career planning problems. It uses peer counseling, faculty mentors, nonacademic staff participation, and social events to…

Describes an Auburn University (Alabama) summer program that brings high school students into the veterinary medicine and molecular biology programs, focusing on recruitment and selection of students, aspects of faculty participation, parent involvement, orientation, laboratory work, and student grouping and mentoring. Results of the program to…

There has been very little previous evaluation research that examines the effects of interventions on persistence.

This guidebook describes the Martin Luther King Program at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, a program expressly created to provide services and resources to assist the minority student in coping with any adjustment problems that may be entailed in entering a predominantly white university in a rural community. The university's supplemental…