Youth who were in foster care as adolescents make up a small but highly vulnerable subpopulation of the college student body. This article analyzes secondary data collected from one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies of foster youth. The analytic sample includes 329 foster youth from three Midwestern states who attended college in the…

Results from the analyses of data from 463 former college students between the ages of 25 and 34 years old identify those most likely to reenroll in higher education in the near future. Those who intend to reenroll are more likely to be members of minority groups, younger, single, and recently laid-off, have earned more credits, and hold strong…

This research empirically examined student behavior in online courses and its relationship to persistence and achievement across fields. Eight variables descriptive of student behaviors online were measured for 1) frequency and 2) duration of participation. Twenty-two courses were grouped into three broad fields: English and Communication; Social…

The present research was a two-year longitudinal study on the effects of a six-day, optional, pre-semester, freshman orientation program on academic credits earned, GPA and college retention. Regression analyses were used to remove the variance associated with other possible predictors of academic success (gender, age, race, developmental need,…

Regression analysis was used to study retention and graduation for the fall 1996 entering class of students at a midwestern research extensive university (n = 3,610; 44% female, 8% minority, 77% in-state). Logistic regression was used to predict the likelihood of a student being retained for each of four years, and the outcome of graduation at the…