The Persistence of College Students from Their Freshman to Sophomore Year

Abstract

This research examined the predictive accuracy of selected variables (high school letter grade average, first-year college grade point average (GPA), residence location, cumulative hours taken, mother's education level, father's education level, and gender) on the persistence of college freshmen to their sophomore year. A model consisting of 1,014 students was first developed and then the sample was divided into three other models, White students, Hispanic students, and African-American students. Logistic regression analyses ( N = 1,014) revealed that the effect of cumulative hours was statistically significant ( p < .05) for the overall model, and for the White and Hispanic student models. No variables were statistically significant in the African-American students model. Additionally, no variables were found to be practically significant in any of the four models.