Many students enter into higher education institutions to pursue degrees in STEM fields with varying levels of academic preparedness, and many students will never finish a college degree. To address academic underpreparedness, many institutions have developed remedial coursework to increase student persistence and graduation rates with varying levels of success. Remedial mathematics is particularly important to students in STEM, as it is a foundational subject for many STEM fields and even in programs not considered math-heavy, universities require all students to complete basic general education requirements in mathematics. This quantitative study explores the effects of admissions criteria on student success in introductory mathematics courses, as well as the effects on the outcome of performance in introductory mathematics courses on student degree attainment. Quantitative data analyzed for the study included admissions metrics such as high school grade point average and ACR scores as well as grades in two introductory mathematics courses at the target institution, both remedial and non-remedial, and graduation rates for students who enrolled as first-time freshmen between Fall 2010 and Fall 2017. Results indicated that high school grade point averages predicted success in introductory mathematics courses more strongly than ACT composite scores. Results also indicated that the outcome of a student's introductory mathematics course was a significant predictor of whether the student would graduate within 6 academic years, as was whether the student completed a non-remedial standard math course compared to students who were placed into remedial courses. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]