It Just Didn’t Work Out Examining Nonreturning Students’ Stories About Their Freshman Experience

First-year college student retention is important to colleges and universities, as well as beyond academia. An analysis was conduced of emergent themes and subthemes from 144 nonreturning students’ stories about school and about home throughout their first-year experience. These students wrote more...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of college student retention : Research, theory & practice Vol. 19; no. 2; pp. 176 - 198
Main Author Martin, Jason M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.08.2017
Subjects
Academic Persistence
Barriers
Coding
College Environment
College Freshmen
Courses
Family Environment
Females
First Generation College Students
Minority Group Students
Socialization
Student Attitudes
Student Experience
Womens Education
Writing Assignments
college transition
attrition
first-year experience
freshmen
retention
narrative
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Summary:First-year college student retention is important to colleges and universities, as well as beyond academia. An analysis was conduced of emergent themes and subthemes from 144 nonreturning students’ stories about school and about home throughout their first-year experience. These students wrote more negative stories about school-related events than they did positive ones and exhibited low levels of campus involvement or engagement. Also, they seemed to struggle with their college living experience, including socially and financially, and dealing with trouble at home. Three of the study’s demographic groups—women, students of color, and first-generation students—represented notable percentages of nonreturners. Researchers should focus more on what goes on during students’ first year of college both on- and off campus to better understand reasons for withdrawing. In doing so, college and university personnel can work more effectively with high school officials, parents, and students to achieve academic and personal success.
ISSN:1521-0251
1541-4167
DOI:10.1177/1521025115611670