Factors Related to the Retention of Female Graduate Students over 30

Abstract

While admissions at the undergraduate level are experiencing a surge of students over thirty years of age (Spaid, 1989), the pool of traditionally aged students is declining. These phenomena may indicate that students over age thirty will also be enrolling in graduate programs in increasing numbers. This study addresses the issue of retention as it pertains to older female graduate students. Utilizing a sample from a large Midwestern research university, results of a logistic regression indicate that the important variables to persistence are being unmarried, maintaining positive student-student and student-faculty interactions, and achieving a high GPA. Although the study is exploratory in nature, several policy implications and interventions are suggested.