Factors contributing to the academic persistence of college students and those factors that may be amenable to institutional control were studied in 1980 at Georgia State University. The academic career of 4,481 students was studied for a 5-quarter period at this nonresidential, urban university. Multiple regression and multiple discriminant analyses were performed on indicators of academic status, demographic background, course context, academic program, and course subject area. It was found that: (1) students likely to attend more quarters had higher grade point averages (GPAs) in their first quarter and that their GPAs increased over time; (2) students who indicated a change of address attended more quarters; (3) students who never received university financial aid attended fewer quarters; (4) students receiving veterans' benefits withdrew less frequently from courses, as did foreign students; (5) students enrolled in classes with high withdrawal rates seemed to withdraw more, while those in courses enrolling students with higher average GPAs and courses in which higher average class grades were given attended more quarters; (6) students attended more when they were in classes having a high proportion of nonminority males; and (7) students who attended fall quarter and students who attended all five quarters in the study period were more accurately predicted than students who fell in between these extremes. It is concluded that persistence is a problem involving social adaptation, and a good measure of this adaptation is first quarter academic performance. Findings from other related studies and implications of the findings are examined in detail. (SW)