A study conducted at William Rainey Harper College (Illinois) followed beginning full- and part-time traditional credit students over a 10-year period to observe their performance and achievement. Tabulations were made on various different fields and cross-tabulated by age, sex, race, and major programs. Study findings, based on the academic records of students who enrolled in successive classes between 1982 and 1992, included the following: (1) 8 out of 10 full-time students returned to school at a later date for 1 year or more; (2) the 80% retention rate for full-time students held for all races, genders, ages, and program categories other than Black/Hispanics and older students; (3) the part-time persistence rate for the same period was 60%; (4) full-time students completed, on average, 37 credit hours, while part-time students completed an average of 11 credit hours; (5) 25% of the full-time students graduated, and most of the part-time students did not intend to graduate; (6) the number and percentage of students enrolling in transfer majors increased over the study period, as did the number of reverse transfer students; (7) the grade point averages (GPA's) of part-time students were higher than those of full-time students (2.34 compared to 2.17); (8) male students had lower GPA's than female students, while older students generally had higher GPA's than younger students; (9) part-time female students outnumbered part-time male students; and (10) there was a slight increase in both full- and part-time minority enrollments. (Author/KP)