Undocumented and Documented International Students: A Comparative Study of Their Academic Performance

Abstract

Researchers on international students focus on Fls, or documented students. These students are characterized as high achievers with excellent academic skills. One group of international students, the undocumented, may not be faring as well academically. To determine if this is true, the college records of 246 undocumented and 294 documented community college students were compared. The undocumented students did better on reading and writing placement tests but poorer on a mathematics placement test. Nevertheless, comparison of grade point averages and acadmic probations and dismissals showed the documented outperforming the undocumented students. Implications for programming for both groups are discussed.

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