Many institutions of higher education offer research opportunities for undergraduates, but community college students often do not get to benefit from this high-impact educational practice. There are several reasons for this problem, including that community college faculty and students have limited time availability for research and the mission…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to examine how college undergraduates perceive the effectiveness of internships that lead to career aspirations in their major. The theoretical foundation was Super and Hall's career exploration stages of the working life model. The sample was college undergraduates from a public urban…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore advisor accessibility and its connection to academic achievement using technology as a means of communication with African American males at a four-year urban university. Qualitative data was collected through the interviews of five advisor participants and ten student participants. The study…

This study examines the impact of grit (Duckworth et al., 2007), demographic characteristics, and environmental pull factors on academic outcomes for nursing students at an urban commuter institution. Undergraduate baccalaureate nursing students (N = 243) completed a survey that collected demographic information, assessed environmental pull…

Given the increasing number of community college students aspiring to complete a bachelor's degree and the decrease in traditional college-bound high school graduates universities have started to focus their attention on the recruitment and retention of transfer students. The institution in this study is a large public research institution located…

This narrative inquiry study explored how higher education impacted undergraduate students' retention, focusing on first-generation college students (FGCS) of color at an urban public R1 university in the mid-South. A key objective was to understand these students' challenges today and how the intersection of their identities influenced their…

Experiential learning and its importance in the professional success of college students has been at the forefront on recent debate about the value of a college education. The low number of recent college graduates acquiring jobs has spurred this debate. Also contributing to this debate is the employers concern for the lack of employability skills…

The subjects of this qualitative research study are seven undergraduate international students between the ages of 18-25 at an urban, private university in the northeast of the United States. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was the methodology employed in this study. The data was analyzed by using Pettigrew's (1998) reformulated…

Undergraduate students represent a new but growing population at a school of public (SPH) health at a large, private, urban research university on the East Coast. This SPH has offered a minor in public health since 2010, and a major was initiated in 2014. The school also plans to offer an accelerated bachelor's-to-master's in public health…

The purpose of this study was to examine how Black male students believed their housing status influenced their academic performance and retention at a historically Black urban university. For purposes of this study, housing status is used to identify students who lived in an on-campus residence hall from those who lived off-campus. A qualitative…

The number of U.S. undergraduates who study abroad is growing, as are expectations that the experience will result in increased intercultural competence. Conclusions in the literature regarding actual outcomes of study abroad, however, remain limited, and often are contradictory. This research examines whether a semester of study abroad is…

Community colleges are disproportionally over-enrolled with both low income students and students of color, while four-year institutions are under-enrolled with the same groups. The vast majority of these students enter the community college with a goal of transferring to the four-year institutions they were unable to access from high school, yet…

This study examined the use of an institutionally-specific risk prediction model in the university's College of Education. Set in a large, urban, public university, the risk model predicted incoming students' first-semester GPAs, which, in turn, predicted the students' risk of attrition. Additionally, the study investigated advising practices…

Research on the impact of stress on the academic performance of Hispanic undergraduate students is limited, leaving institutions of higher education without needed information about how to better support this growing population of students. The purpose of this study was to identify stressors that have a negative impact on academic performance of…

In an extension of educational attainment research, this exploratory mixed- methods case study examines the influence of institutional policies on the behavior of five cohorts (n = 925) of traditional first time, full time (FTFT) freshmen--called "Last Mile" students--at one urban research university located in the Pacific Northwest.…