The Disappearing Student: Students Who Leave before the Census Date

Abstract

Community colleges are open enrollment institutions that frequently take pride in being convenient to students, reducing impediments for application and registration, and understanding the multiple demands and obligations that impinge on students' lives. One fallout of this stance is that many students may enroll in the college but leave before the official census date. Literature about retention and persistence does not address this population of students. This exploratory study examines the demographic and educational characteristics of “disappearing students,” explores their reasons for dropping courses, looks at return in subsequent terms, and suggests a complex array of factors—many outside the institution's ability to affect—shape students' enrollment and retention decisions. Using quantitative data from the institution's student information system, supplemented with qualitative data from a modest number of telephone interviews to hear students' reasons for disappearing in their own words, researchers gained important insights about this population of students and ideas about what the college could or could not do to affect retention.