To establish an objective measure of English skills for graduation candidates and to determine whether objective and subjective measures of English skills produce different results, 101 volunteers completed a writing sample and the Reading and Written English Expression tests of the Comparative Guidance and Placement Program (CGP). Scores obtained…

A profile of freshmen at the University of South Carolina (USC) was drawn from a survey during the 1979 summer and fall orientation programs. Twelve areas of interest were taken from the results: age, racial background, average grade in high school, highest degree planned, reasons for selecting the college, parental income, probable college major,…

The relationship of Nelson-Denny Reading Test scores and an English course placement recommendation to academic success of Educational Opportunity Program students at the University of Washington was studied. The placement recommendation was based on a writing sample and test scores. The 207 freshmen students who entered in either 1976 or 1978…

A study was conducted to determine the optimum combination of selected social, academic, and demographic variables to maximally differentiate membership in the successful, unsuccessful, and withdrawal groups of first-year computer programming majors in Virginia community colleges. A questionnaire focusing on 18 selected variables was administered…

The initial phase (1967-1968) of a longitudinal study designed to provide more teachers of the disadvantaged by (1) recruiting education students who have withdrawn from college for academic reasons but have greater scholastic potential than they have demonstrated and (2) modifying teacher education programs to train these individuals as teachers…

Extensive data are gathered on entry into dental schools in the United States and Canada; all schools are included. In addition to brief chapters on dentistry as a career and planning for dental education, information provided for the entering class of 1979-80 by each school is given. This information includes: general information on the school;…

A study followed freshman students entering Indiana University in 1971, 1973, and 1974 to establish the rate and variables related to dropping out of the university. Students were labeled academic drops if they were achieving below a 2.0 grade point average (GPA) at the time of withdrawal, and nonacademic drops if not below 2.0. Students entering…

During the 1976 academic year the Evaluation Office continued its study of student development at Simon's Rock and of the factors that underlie successful academic and social adjustment at an early college. Included in the year's study are the characteristics of 1976 incoming students, compared with students entering in previous years, predictors…

The Higher Education -- Students Speak II survey was developed by the New England Association of Schools & Colleges (NEASC) and the Educational Policy Institute to identify the types and breadth of work-based learning activities that four-year college students experienced during high school, and to determine the correlation of these activities on…

In the second half of a two-part study conducted by the Illinois Community College System, a fall 1990 cohort of first-time freshmen was examined for 6 years to determine the effectiveness of remedial/developmental instruction. Student characteristics of age, ethnicity, and gender for the entire cohort were compared with the cohort group of…

Researchers used cross-sectional survey research to reexamine the problem of adult persistence within undergraduate degree programs. They identified a variable--perceived stress--that permitted a richer explanation of the process of student persistence. A model was presented that examined the attitudinal and behavioral impacts of unmet need,…

This paper looks at the relationship between the study behavior and academic engagement of individual students, the norms and attitudes of close friends, and the peer culture of school. The authors are particularly interested in how the academic orientation of a student and his or her close friends invites or protects him or her from harassment by…

In 1989, a study was conducted at Columbia College (CC) in California to determine the effects of CC's "College Success" course (Guidance 7) on student attitudes, performance, and retention; and to determine ways in which the course could be improved. College Success, which focuses on techniques for effective reading, studying, memorizing, test…

Beginning in 1985, freshmen enrolled on a part-time basis in associate degree programs in Indiana postsecondary institutions were tracked for eight semesters to determine rates of retention and attrition. In 1985, associate degree-seeking freshmen with a declared major constituted 12% of the total undergraduate population in the state, and 74% of…

Results of an evaluation of the Individualized Study Program (ISP), a 2-year pilot program at the Learning Skills Center (LSC) of the University of California, Davis, are presented. The program target group were disadvantaged students who had not met the university's entrance requirements. The ISP, which is designed to improve retention of…