The main objective of this study was to examine the effects of selected factors on retention, graduation, and timely bachelor's degree completion at The University of Iowa. An additional purpose was to identify the stage-varying effects of selected variables. Reflecting the sequential nature of bachelor's degree completion, this study focused on three stages of students' progress to graduation: 1) dropout vs. persistence in the first year, 2) graduation vs. failure to graduate among first year persisters, and 3) graduation in four years or less vs. graduation in five years or more. We found that college academic performance, pre-matriculation academic achievement, and college major were the most important variables in explaining success at The University of Iowa. We also found fairly consistent results across the three models.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ACT, Inc. (1995). Technical Manual: Revised Unisex Edition of the ACT Interest Inventory (UNIACT). Iowa City: The American College Testing Program.
2.
ACT, Inc. (1997). ACT Assessment: Technical Manual. Iowa City, IA: ACT, Inc.
3.
AdelmanC. (1999). Answers in the tool box: Academic intensity, attendance patterns, and bachelor's degree attainment. Jessup, MD: U.S. Department of Education.
4.
AltonjiJ. (1993). The demand for and the return to education when education outcomes are uncertain. Journal of Labor Economics, 11, 48–83.
5.
AshworthK. H. (1994, November/December). Performance-based funding in higher education: The Texas case study. Change.
6.
AstinA. W. (1975). Preventing students from dropping out. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
7.
BantaT. W., & RudolphL. B. (1996). Performance funding comes of age in Tennessee. Journal of Higher Education, 67(1), 23–46.
8.
BarakA. (1981). Vocational interests: A cognitive view. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 19, 1–14.
9.
BeanJ. P. (1980). Dropouts and turnover: The syntheses and test of a causal model of student attribution. Research in Higher Education, 12(2), 155–187.
10.
BeanJ. P. (1982a). Conceptual models of student attrition: How theory can help the institutional researcher. New Directions for Institutional Research: Studying Student Attrition, No. 36. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
11.
BeanJ. P. (1982b). Student attrition, intentions, and confidence: Interaction effects in a path model. Research in Higher Education, 17(4), 291–319.
12.
BeanJ. P. (1983). The application of a model of turnover in work organizations to the student attrition process. The Review of Higher Education, 6(2), 129–148.
13.
BowlesS. (1972). Schooling and inequality from generation to generation. Journal of Political Behavior, 80, S219–251.
14.
BraxtonJ. M. (2000). Reworking the student, departure puzzle. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
15.
BraxtonJ. M., & BrierE. M. (1989). Melding organizational and interactional theories of student attrition: A path analytic study. The Review of Higher Education, 13(1), 47–61.
16.
BrubacherJ. S., & RudyW. (1976). Higher education in taransition. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers.
17.
CabreraA. F.NoraA., & CastanedaM. B. (1993). College persistence: Structural equations modeling test of an integrated model of student retention. Journal of Higher Education, 64(2), 123–139.
18.
California State University, Northridge. (1998). CSUN Economic Resources. World Wide Web. http://www.csun.edu/.
19.
DeBrockL.HendricksW., & KoenkerR. (1996). The economics of persistence: Graduation rates of athletes as labor market choice. Journal of Human Resources, 31, 513–539.
20.
DesJardinsS. L. (1996). Using event history modeling to study the temporal dimensions of student departure from college. Doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1996. Dissertation Abstracts International, 57/09.
21.
DesJardinsS. L. (2001, Fall). A comment on interpreting odds-ratios when logistic regression coefficients are negative. Association for Institutional Research Professional File, 81, 1–10.
22.
DesJardinsS. L.AhlburgA. A., & McCallB. P. (1999). An event history model of student departure. Economics of Education Review, 18, 375–390.
23.
FoxJ. (1997). Applied regression analysis, linear models, and related methods. Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
24.
GeskeT. G. (1996). The value of investments in higher education: Capturing the full returns. In HoneymanD. S. (Eds.), A struggle to survive: Funding higher education in the next century. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.
25.
GormanS. (1996). Lawmakers try to deter students from dawdling in state colleges. The Chronicle of Higher Education, A27.
26.
HearnJ. (1987). Impacts of undergraduate experiences on aspirations and plans for graduate and professional education. Research in Higher Education, 27, 119–141.
27.
HebelS. (1999). Virginia board wants to link state aid for colleges to their performance in key areas. Chronicle of Higher Education, 45.
28.
HollandJ. L. (1985). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
29.
HoneymanD. S., & BruhnM. (1996). In the financing of higher education. In HoneymanD. S.WattenbargerJ. L., & WestbrookK. (Eds.), A struggle to survive: Funding higher education in the next century. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.
30.
IshitaniT.T., & DesJardinsS. L. (2002). A longitudinal investigation of dropout from college in the United States. Journal of College Student Retention, 4(2), 173–201.
31.
JencksC., & RiesmanD. (1977). The academic revolution. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
32.
KleinbaumD. G., & KupperL. L. (1988). Applied regression analysis and other multivariable methods. Boston, MA: PWS-KENT Publishing Company.
33.
KolbD. A. (1981). Learning styles and disciplinary differences. In A. W. Chickering and Associates (Eds.), The modern American college. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
34.
LaingJ. (1984). Integrating vocational interest inventory results and expressed choices. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 25, 304–315.
35.
LancasterT. M. (1993). Factors that enhance or impede graduation rates—An exploratory study of the 1983 entering cohort at The University of Iowa. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Iowa.
36.
LeslieL. L., & BrinkmanP. T. (1988). The economic value of higher education. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
37.
LevineA. (1978). Handbook on undergraduate curriculum. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
38.
ManskiC. F. (1989). Schooling as experimentation: A reappraisal of the postsecondary dropout phenomenon. Economics of Education Review, 8(4), 305–312.
39.
ManskiC. F., & WiseD. (1983). College choice in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
NoraA.AttinasiL., & MatonakA. (1990). Testing qualitative indicators of precollege factors in Tinto's attrition model: A community college student population. The Review of Higher Education, 13(3), 337–356.
42.
OkunM. A., & BeninM. (1996). Staying in college: Moderators of the relations between intention and institutional departure. Journal of Higher Education, 67(5), 577–597.
43.
PascarelliE. T., & TerenziniP. T. (1980). Predicting freshman persistence and voluntary dropout decisions from a theoretical model. Journal of Higher Education, 51, 60–75.
44.
PascarellaE. T., & TerenziniP. T. (1991). How college affects students: Findings and insights from twenty years of research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
45.
SpadyW. G. (1970). Dropouts from higher education: An interdisciplinary review and synthesis. Interchange, 1(1), 64–85.
46.
SpadyW. G. (1971). Dropouts from higher education: Toward an empirical model. Interchange, 2(3), 38–62.
47.
SpokaneA. R. (1985). A review of research on person-environment congruence in Holland's thory of careers. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 26, 306–343.
48.
TintoV. (1975). Dropout from higher education: A theoretical synthesis of recent research. Review of Educational Research, 45, 89–125.
49.
TintoV. (1982). Defining dropout: A matter of perspective. New Directions for Institutional Research: Studying Student Attrition, No. 36. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
50.
TintoV. (1987). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
51.
TintoV. (1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
52.
University of Iowa (1998a). Schedule of courses—Fall semester 1998. Iowa City, IA: The University of Iowa.
53.
University of Iowa (1998b). The University of Iowa General Catalog: 1998–2000. Iowa City, IA: The University of Iowa.
54.
Washington State University (1996). Models of change. World Wide Web. http://www.wsu.edu/.
