Previous research confirms that first-semester grade-point average (GPA) is related to college student persistence, retention, and graduation. Thus, it is important to identify factors related to enhancing first-semester GPA. In this study, researchers asked faculty and students in the disciplines of journalism, strategic communication or public relations, mass media production and design, motion picture or film, and mass media in general, to rate themselves on success-related lifestyle habits. Students were grouped according to five GPA categories, and each GPA group's survey responses were compared with faculty survey responses and with every other GPA group's responses. Statistical analyses identified five highly differentiating lifestyle habits that separated both faculty and the highest GPA group from all other GPA groups. Because these five habits related so closely to higher-level GPAs, one major implication of the findings is that institutions could improve retention by encouraging freshmen to develop these five critical lifestyle habits.
AllenJ.RobbinsS. B.CasillasA.OhI. (2008) Third-year college retention and transfer: Effects of academic performance, motivation, and social connectedness. Research in Higher Education49: 647–664.
2.
BaderJ. B. (2011) Dean's list: Eleven habits of highly successful college students, Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
3.
BainK. (2004) What the best college teachers do, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
4.
BarrickM. R.MountM. K. (1991) The big five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology44(1): 1–26.
BeanJ. P. (1982) Student attrition, intentions, and confidence: Interaction effects in a path model. Research in Higher Education17: 291–320.
7.
BeanJ. P.KuhG. D. (1984) The reciprocity between student-faculty informal contact and academic performance of university undergraduate students. Research in Higher Education21: 461–477.
8.
Belcheir, M. J., & Michener, B. (1997). Dimensions of retention: Findings from quantitative and qualitative approaches (Research Report 143, ERIC Document No. ED 414 869). Boise, ID: Office of Institutional Assessment, Boise State University.
9.
BookmanG. (1948) Freshman orientation techniques in colleges and universities. Occupations27: 163–168.
10.
BrownJ. L. (2012) Developing a freshman orientation survey to improve student retention within a college. College Student Journal46: 834–851.
11.
CooperR.TangT. (2010) The attributes for career success in the mass communication industries: A comparison of current and aspiring professionals. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator65(1): 40–55.
12.
CramerD.HowittD. (2004) The Sage dictionary of statistics, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
13.
CrockerL. G. (1921) Advice to freshmen by freshmen, Ann Arbor, MI: G. Wahr.
14.
De VosA.De ClippeleerI.DewildeT. (2009) Proactive career behaviours and career success during the early career. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology82: 761–777.
15.
EmmeE. E. (1933) A study of the adjustment problems of freshmen in a church college, Nashville, TN: Cokesbury Press.
16.
Endo, J. J., & Harpel, R. L. (1981). The effect of student-faculty informal interaction on students' educational outcomes. Paper presented at the Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Minneapolis, MN, May 17–20, 1981. (ERIC Document No. ED 205 086).
ForrestA. (1982) Increasing student competence and persistence: The best case for general education, Iowa City, IA: The ACT National Center for Advancement of Educational Practices.
19.
FragoulisI.PhillipsN. (2011) Social skills for successful career development. Review of European Studies3(1): 85–93.
20.
GabrielK. F. (2008) Teaching unprepared students: Strategies for promoting success and retention in higher education, Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, LLC.
21.
Gramling, T. (2013). How five student characteristics accurately predict for-profit university graduation rates. Sage Open. DOI: 10.1177/2158244013497026.
22.
GreenS. B.SalkindN. J. (2014) Using SPSS for Windows and Macintosh, 7th. Boston, MA: Pearson.
23.
HarringtonC. (2013) Student success in college: Doing what works!, Independence, KY: Cengage Learning.
24.
Herrera-ViedmaE.CabrerizoF. J.KacprzykJ.PedryczW. (2014) A review of soft consensus models in a fuzzy environment. Information Fusion17: 4–13.
25.
IshlerJ. L. C.UpcraftM. L. (2005) The keys to first-year student persistence. In: UpcraftM. L.GardnerJ. N.BarefootB.Associates (eds) Challenging and supporting the First-year student: A handbook for improving the first year of college, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, pp. 27–46.
26.
JacobP. E. (1957) Changing values in college: An exploratory study of the impact of college teaching, New York, NY: Harper and Brothers.
27.
KahnJ. H.NautaM. M. (2001) Social-cognitive predictors of first-year college persistence: The importance of proximal assessment. Research in Higher Education42: 633–652.
28.
KeupJ. R. (2006) Promoting new-student success: Assessing academic development and achievement among first-year students. New Directions for Student Services114: 27–46.
29.
KimE.NewtonF. B.DowneyR. G.BentonS. L. (2010) Personal factors impacting college student success: Constructing college learning effectiveness inventory (CLEI). College Student Journal44: 112–125.
30.
KuhG. D.HuS. (2001) The effects of student-faculty interaction in the 1990s. Review of Higher Education24: 309–332.
31.
KuhG. D.KinzieJ.SchuhJ. H.WhittE. J.Associates. (2010) Student success in college: Creating conditions that matter, 2nd ed. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
32.
LandauS.EverittB. S. (2004) A handbook of statistical analyses using SPSS, London, England: Chapman & Hall/CRC.
LavinD. E. (1965) The prediction of academic performance, New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
35.
LevitzR.NoelL. (1989) Connecting students to institutions: Keys to retention and success. In: UpcraftM. L.GardnerJ. N.Associates. (eds) The freshman year experience: Helping students survive and succeed in college, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, pp. 65–81.
36.
LightR. J. (2001) Making the most of college: Students speak their minds, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
37.
LockwoodF. C. (1913) The freshman and his college: A college manual, Boston, MA: D. C. Heath and Co.
38.
LundquistC.SpaldingR. J.LandrumR. E. (2002–2003) College student's (sic) thoughts about leaving the university: The impact of faculty attitudes and behaviors. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice4(2): 123–133.
39.
MajorM. (2009) Building a culture of achievement. Education Digest74(8): 24–28.
40.
McGrathM. M.BraunsteinA. (1997) The prediction of freshmen attrition: An examination of the importance of certain demographics. College Student Journal31: 396–407.
41.
McKayV. C.EstrellaJ. (2008) First-generation student success: The role of faculty interaction in service learning course. Communication Education57: 356–372.
42.
MohrJ. J.EicheK. D.SedlacekW. E. (1998) So close, yet so far: Predictors of attrition in college seniors. Journal of College Student Development39: 343–354.
43.
NoraA.CabreraA.HagedornL. S.PascarellaE. (1996) Differential impacts of academic and social experiences on college-related behavioral outcomes across different ethnic and gender groups at four-year institutions. Research in Higher Education37: 427–451.
44.
NoraA.CrispG. (2012) Student persistence and degree attainment beyond the first year in college: Existing knowledge and directions for future research. In: SeidmanA. (ed.) College student retention, 2nd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, pp. 229–249.
45.
PascarellaE. T. (1980) Student-faculty informal contact and college outcomes. Review of Educational Research50: 545–595.
46.
PascarellaE. T.TerenziniP. T. (1978) Student-faculty informal relationships and freshman year educational outcomes. Journal of Educational Research71(4): 183–189.
47.
PascarellaE. T.TerenziniP. T. (1979) Student-faculty informal contact and college persistence: A further investigation. Journal of Educational Research72(4): 214–218.
48.
RaskindM. H.GoldbergR. J.HigginsE. L.HermanK. L. (1999) Patterns of change and predictors of success in individuals with learning disabilities: Results from a twenty-year longitudinal study. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice14(1): 35–49.
49.
RyanM. G. (2013) Improving retention and academic achievement for first-time students at a two-year college. Community College Journal of Research and Practice37(2): 131–134.
50.
SchusterJ. H. (2003) The faculty makeover: What does it mean for students?New Directions for Higher Education2003(123): 15–22.
51.
SeidmanA. (2012) Taking action: A retention formula and model for student success. In: SeidmanA. (ed.) College student retention, 2nd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, pp. 267–284.
52.
Shapiro, D., Dunbar, A., Ziskin, M., Yuan, S., & Harrell, A. (2013). Completing college: A national view of student attainment rates—Fall 2007 cohort (Signature Report No. 6). Herndon, VA: National Student Clearinghouse Research. Retrieved from http://nscresearchcenter.org/signaturereport6/.
53.
SpadyW. G. (1970) Dropouts from higher education: An interdisciplinary review and synthesis. Interchange1(1): 64–85.
54.
SpadyW. G. (1971) Dropouts from higher education: Toward an empirical model. Interchange2(3): 38–62.
55.
Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act, §. 1092, 20 U.S.C. 28, Subchapter IV, Part F-1 (1990).
56.
TerenziniP. T.TheophilidesC.LorangW. G. (1984) Influences on student perceptions of their academic skill development during college. Journal of Higher Education55: 621–636.
57.
ThompsonJ. A. (2005) Proactive personality and job performance: A social capital perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology90: 1011–1017.
58.
TintoV. (1975) Dropouts from higher education: A theoretical synthesis of recent research. Review of Educational Research45: 89–125.
59.
TintoV. (1993) Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition, 2nd. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
60.
Tinto, V., & Pusser, B. (2006). Moving from theory to action: Building a model of institutional action for student success. National Postsecondary Educational Cooperative. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/npec/pdf/Tinto_Pusser_Report.pdf.
61.
ToddS. Y.HarrisK. J.HarrisR. B.WheelerA. R. (2009) Career success implications of political skill. Journal of Social Psychology149(3): 179–204.
62.
UpcraftM. L.GardnerJ. N. (1989) The freshman year experience: Helping students survive and succeed in college, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
63.
UrdanT. C. (2010) Statistics in plain English, 3rd ed. New York, NY: Routledge.
64.
WimmerR. D.DominickJ. R. (2014) Mass media research, 14th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth.
