Association of Freshman Retention Rates with Instructional Expenditure and Residential Status : A Case Study for Large Public Colleges

Retention is a key indicator of institutional effectiveness in education research. Retaining full-time freshman students has been a long-standing problem for institutions of higher education. Overall, 40% of U.S. college students leave college among which the majority are freshman students. About 30% of freshman students drop out before their sophomore year of college. The primary causes for leaving college include financial pressure, falling behind in classwork, lack of social connections, and loss of family support. Higher educational institutions need to understand the dynamic between different expenditures and freshman retention rates to responsibly and strategically allocate funds to what will best support institutional success. This study investigates how freshman retention rates at large public colleges are associated with instructional expenditures and residential status. Findings of this study indicate that regarding freshman retention at large public colleges, spending more money on instruction goes further for residential colleges compared to non-residential ones. In other words, for most levels of instructional expenditure, residential colleges have higher freshman retention rates than non-residential colleges. Findings of this study can assist higher education institutions in directing their efforts toward what will best support institutional success.

A controlled intervention to improve freshman retention in a STEM-based physiology major

Using a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning lens, this study systematically examined if a targeted intervention in at-risk students within a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-based physiology program would elicit positive student perceptions and higher retention rates into the second year. Those students who were considered at risk for attrition (retention; n = 82) were compared against a control group (non-retention; n = 165), and outcomes were evaluated with an End-of-Semester Survey and university enrollment data. Students in the retention group reported more favorable responses to questions pertaining to a first-year seminar course and academic advising. By the start of the following (spring 2019) semester, 48 students transferred out of the program (20%) with little difference between groups (non-retention 19%; retention 22%). At the start of fall 2019 term, 55% of the 2018 freshman class were retained within the program (non-retention 66%; retention 39%), and 85% were retained within the university (non-retention 91%, retention 74%). The intervention was successful in eliciting positive student perceptions of the major, but did not improve retention of at-risk students within the physiology major.