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As college tuition rises nationwide, policy efforts to reduce these costs are increasingly focused at the 2-year level. However, it is not fully known whether increased access to college increases degree attainment. Compared to observationally equivalent peers who enroll in 4-year institutions, 2-year enrollees may face a decreased likelihood of BA receipt. Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study, this paper examines the long-term academic outcomes for full-time, bachelor's degree intending students who initially enroll at public 2-year institutions. I examine the impact of initial community college enrollment on degree attainment, credit accumulation, and student loan debt using multiple identification strategies. I utilize a series of linear probability models (LPM) and an instrumental variable (IV) approach that exploits variation in the cost of and proximity to 2- and 4-year institutions. These strategies estimate the impact of initial community college enrollment by comparing identical students regarding demographics and academic ability, in which one student enrolls in a 2-year school and another in a 4-year institution. I find that initial 2-year enrollment reduces the likelihood of bachelor's degree attainment by 14 (LPM) to 35 (IV) percentage points but reduces student loan accrual by nearly $7500. Understanding the impact of initial 2-year enrollment is especially important as there is increased pressure on community colleges to play a role in providing pathways to BA receipt. Understanding the effect of community college enrollment can help secondary and postsecondary institutions and policymakers better provide pathways to baccalaureate attainment.

Undergraduate research, recognized as one of the High-Impact Practices (HIPs), has demonstrated a positive association with diverse student learning outcomes. Understanding the pivotal quality factors essential for its efficacy is important for enhancing student success. This study evaluates the psychometric properties of survey items employed to gauge the quality of undergraduate research, including alignment with Kuh and O'Donnell's (2013) eight HIP characteristics, alongside assessments of reliability, validity, and generalizability across demographic groups. The study assesses the validity and reliability of these measures at both the scale and item levels using data from the National Survey of Student Engagement's (NSSE) HIP Quality Topical Module. The methodological approaches employed include Exploratory Factor Analysis, Parallel Analysis, Item Response Theory, and Differential Item Functioning (DIF). Our findings uncover a misalignment between NSSE's HIP Quality module items and HIP characteristics, leading to the identification of seven subscales instead of eight. Nevertheless, four subscales--Reflective and Integrative Learning, Real-World Applications, Interactions with Others, and High-Performance Expectations--emerge as valid indicators of undergraduate research experiences. While specific items yield valuable insights at the item level, refinement is recommended for others. Despite the identification of two items exhibiting DIF, their negligible effect sizes suggest that major revisions are unwarranted solely on DIF grounds. This study offers recommendations for item refinement, including the incorporation of new items, wording updates, and tailored utilization of assessment tools within educational institutions. These recommendations are intended to empower educators and researchers to effectively capture the quality dimensions of students' undergraduate research experiences, thereby fostering their academic success.

Longstanding disparities in four-year transfer rates for Black/African American and Latinx/Hispanic community college students, relative to their Asian and white peers, raise important equity questions about the vertical transfer function in the U.S. higher education system. Using data from one of the nation's largest and most racially and ethnically diverse community college systems, we examined whether differences in early academic momentum (e.g., first-year cumulative GPA, summer enrollment, number of first-year credits attempted and earned) were a root cause of gaps in transfer outcomes between different racial and ethnic groups. Multi-group structural equation modeling (SEM) results revealed a strong relationship between early academic momentum and vertical transfer success for community college students. However, the results showed academic momentum did not operate in the same manner for all racial and ethnic groups and some indicators were particularly important for improving transfer outcomes for Black/African American and Latinx/Hispanic students. These results have important implications for community college research and practice pertinent to vertical transfer outcomes.

Increasing numbers of students require internet access to pursue their undergraduate degrees, yet broadband access remains inequitable across student populations. Furthermore, surveys that currently show differences in access by student demographics or location typically do so at high levels of aggregation, thereby obscuring important variation between subpopulations within larger groups. Through the dual lenses of quantitative intersectionality and critical race spatial analysis alongside a QuantCrit approach, we use Bayesian multilevel regression and Census microdata to model variation in broadband access among undergraduate populations at deeper interactions of identity. We find substantive heterogeneity in student broadband access by gender, race, and place, including between typically aggregated subpopulations. Our findings speak to inequities in students' geographies of opportunity and suggest a range of policy prescriptions at both the institutional and federal level.

This study applies an adapted Tripartite Integration Model of Social Influences (TIMSI) framework to investigate the socialization experiences of undergraduate students participating in the STEM Scholars Program (SSP), with a particular focus on the relationship between first-generation status and STEM socialization. A sample of N = 193 students was longitudinally tracked and surveyed on five occasions throughout their four-year college journey, ranging from the summer bridge to the end of their four academic college years. Through the application of latent growth curve modeling, we identified quadratic growth trajectories in three indicators of social influence/socialization processes (i.e., scientific self-efficacy, scientific identity, and SSP program values), as well as a co-development between social influence processes and scientific integration. Notably, the study finds that first-generation students report comparable growth rates of socialization experiences to their continuing-generation peers. These results suggest that the SSP may help bridge the gap for first-generation students as they embark on their journey into STEM fields. The implications of this study highlight the importance of socialization in STEM education, as well as the recruitment of first-generation students in STEM intervention programs.

Although previous research has documented benefits of undergraduate research experiences (UREs), posttraumatic growth from COVID-19 has never been examined. Based on data collected from 891 students from 114 US universities in July 2020, this study shows that among undergraduates who conducted research during COVID-19, underrepresented minorities (URMs) reported greater posttraumatic growth than non-URMs. URMs who had more competent mentors or more URM/women mentors experienced more growth than URMs who had less competent mentors or less URM/women mentors. Women reported greater posttraumatic growth than men, but same-gender mentor-mentee relationships did not foster more growth in them. LGBQ + students experienced less posttraumatic growth than non-LGBQ + students. UREs have the potential to provide a safety net for many students during a major crisis.

We examine the impact of credit mobility exchange programs' timing on students' academic performance, focusing on the moment in which students travel and the length of the period spent abroad. To provide causal evidence, we exploit unique data from more than 10,000 students from a well-known and internationalized Brazilian university from 2010 to 2020. By combing Propensity Score Matching with Difference in Differences techniques, we find that international mobility impacts groups of students differently. Students who travel closer to the end of their undergraduate courses benefit the most from the mobility experience, while negative effects are found for those who travel at the beginning of their university program. Results also show that, while student mobility impacts positively and significantly students who participate in programs lasting from one semester to 1 year, negative effects are associated with shorter periods abroad. Our findings also reveal heterogeneity across destination countries. Mobility has a positive impact on students' grades for those students traveling to English-speaking countries. Our analysis presents empirical evidence that can be used to design international student mobility programs, providing insights to policymakers engaged in maximizing their effects.

One in three students suffers from at least one common mental disorder highlighting the high prevalence of health issues in higher education. At the same time, every third student drops out of university without achieving their degrees. Nevertheless, connections between health and students' dropout behavior have hardly been investigated. Grounding on value-expectation theory, this article argues that the students' health-related quality of life (HRQoL) alters the impact of their self-assessed success probability in graduating on their dropout intentions. To examine the research question, data from the LAST project, which surveyed a German undergraduate student population over a period of four semesters (N = 7,169), were used applying fixed effects regressions, and interaction effects. Analyses uncover that the students' mental health status is in fact linked to their intentions to drop out of university. Furthermore, an interaction effect of mental HRQoL and success probability could be confirmed. The findings suggest that universities should adopt better health promotion policies that bring together both individual health needs and higher education's interest in successful graduates.

Scholars have identified that openness to diversity is a vital student outcome for higher education. Interest in this outcome has only intensified in recent years because of increased attention to, and unrest related to, social injustices. Using longitudinal data from 3420 undergraduate members of historically white college men's social fraternities located at 134 higher education institutions in the United States, this study examined factors that influenced the development of openness to diversity and change (ODC) amongst fraternity members from the 2019-2020 to 2020-2021 academic years. Our findings revealed that individual and institutional-level political and social involvement, and individual and institutional-level conceptualizations of fraternal brotherhood (e.g., brotherhood based on belonging) were associated with ODC during the 2020-2021 academic year. Though historically white college men's fraternities have often perpetuated exclusionary environments both in historical and contemporary times, the study results suggest that political and social involvement and participation in fraternities that emphasize belonging and accountability may contribute to college men's ODC. We urge scholars and practitioners to have more nuanced understandings of fraternities, while simultaneously challenging fraternities to put their values into actions and to deconstruct the legacies of exclusion that exist within these organizations.

Given the prevalence of transfer activity, education stakeholders must understand how transfer may be associated with student outcomes. Such knowledge is critical, as the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn have impacted college enrollment and student transfer behavior. Relying on a sample of 6510 undergraduate students from BPS:12/17 data, we conducted analyses using multiple regression to examine the relationship between student transfer direction and two student outcomes: time to degree and cumulative loan debt. Further, we analyzed whether these relationships varied by income status, using adjusted gross income (AGI) as a proxy. We found that transferring from one postsecondary institution to another may extend time to degree by one academic semester and result in increased student loan debt, with these findings varying by income level.

This study provides a typological analysis of public, four-year institutions implementing programs for men of color (MoC). The purpose of the study is to expand our understanding of the institutional context and conditions in which these interventions operate. As more of these programs emerge, it is important to understand if and how institutional mission, composition, and resources shape supports and opportunities for underrepresented men of color attending four-year public institutions. Through an exhaustive search process, we identified 177 MoC programs across 166 public four-year institutions across the United States and organized them along a range of institutional characteristics. We then applied descriptive statistics and cluster analysis to program search findings. Results show that public institutions implementing MoC programs can be understood as seven clusters or institutional types. This research provides important information and context for stakeholders who are interested in addressing educational disparities for men of color by illuminating the institutional diversity through which these programs are catalyzed and implemented. To date, this is the first study to organize MoC programs located across four-year public institutions by a range of institutional categories.

Scholars and the public alike have questioned the benefits of obtaining an undergraduate education. Although research has extensively examined short-term outcomes associated with college experiences, relatively few studies have investigated non-economic outcomes beyond graduation. This paper explored the link between college experiences and post-college outcomes among 21,716 bachelor's degree recipients from 68 private institutions. Although some variation across demographics was observed, good teaching, academic challenge, and diversity experiences were consistently--and often strongly--related to alumni's perceptions of intellectual and civic growth.

Roughly half of 4-year students who begin as STEM majors either change to non-STEM majors or drop out of college altogether. STEM attrition is especially disconcerting for underserved students, such as people of color or individuals from low-income families, who are significantly less likely to persist in or graduate from a STEM degree program when compared to their White or higher-income peers. Previous researchers have reported that co-enrolling at more than one institution (or swirling between institutions) can be associated with higher rates of persistence and graduation. In this study, we leverage student-level transcript data from a high enrollment, broad-access university to examine the influence of math swirling on underserved students' academic outcomes within high-demand STEM degree programs. We find that math swirling is positively related to persistence to upper-division math courses and bachelor's degree completion in non-STEM degree programs, but math swirling has no influence on students' likelihood of bachelor's degree completion in high-demand STEM fields.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented number of higher education institutions adopted test-optional admissions policies. The proliferation of these policies and the criticism of standardized admissions tests as unreliable predictors of applicants' postsecondary educational promise have prompted the reimagining of evaluative methodologies in college admissions. However, few institutions have designed and implemented new measures of applicants' potential for success, rather opting to redistribute the weight given to other variables such as high school course grades and high school GPA. We use multiple regression to investigate the predictive validity of a measure of non-cognitive, motivational-developmental dimensions implemented as part of a test-optional admissions policy at a large urban research university in the United States. The measure, composed of four short-answer essay questions, was developed based on the social-cognitive motivational and developmental-constructivist perspectives. Our findings suggest that scores derived from the measure make a statistically significant but small contribution to the prediction of undergraduate GPA and 4-year bachelor's degree completion. We also find that the measure does not make a statistically significant nor practical contribution to the prediction of 5-year graduation.

Scholars have persistently recognized inequities in undergraduate college admissions and student engagement, especially with regard to specialized practices such as early admissions (i.e., early action and early decision, or EA/ED) and high-impact practices (HIPs). However, researchers have not yet considered whether the known social privileges of early admissions are associated with compounding privileges in terms of students' participation in HIPs. Guided by a conceptual framework that places social capital and cumulative advantage in conversation with student engagement, this quantitative study explores whether the social privileges present among EA/ED students relate to greater participation in structures of college engagement, operationalized through the lens of HIPs. I use an analytic sample of 7657 undergraduate students who completed The Freshman Survey and the College Senior Survey (2013-2017), both administered by the Higher Education Research Institute, employing descriptive and multiple regression analyses to investigate the relationship between early admissions and later college engagement. Descriptive findings document many of the systemic privileges that EA/ED students hold and reveal that EA/ED students participate in certain types of HIPs more frequently than their regular admit peers. Further, regression results document several important predictors of HIP participation, including students' social identities (e.g., sex, race, class), high school engagement and achievement, early admit status, and collegiate context, suggesting that access to college student engagement is not value neutral. Practical implications discuss the importance of questioning how--and for whom--specialized admissions and engagement programs serve.

Placing students on academic probation is a pervasive practice at colleges and universities, but the lasting impact--and arguably even the purpose--of academic probation is unclear. The present study explored the influence of academic probation on four-year graduation using regression discontinuity analyses with a dataset of 9,777 undergraduates. The results frequently identified large or very large negative effects of probationary placement on four-year graduation, and these were greatest for probationary criteria based on either semester GPA or an overall GPA criterion in which students had accrued fewer than 30 total college credits. The findings were robust across analytic approaches and were observed regardless of students' race, sex, first-generation status, high school GPA, and standardized test scores; the effects were sometimes larger among students who had higher high school GPAs and female students. Supplemental analyses suggest that the graduation effects based on cutoffs for college semester GPA and early overall GPA were predominantly or entirely driven by attrition that occurred soon after the probationary placement, whereas graduation effects based on the overall GPA cutoff with at least 30 college credits appeared to be driven mostly by delaying time to degree. These findings have critical implications for institutional policy and practice.

Scholars have advocated for further investigation of the campus climate for diversity and students' attitudes and behaviors surrounding diversity, and there appears to be an increasing responsibility for higher education professionals to consider ways to encourage students' awareness and acceptance of difference. Using longitudinal data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, this study examined the relationship between students' perceptions of faculty practices and student-faculty interactions and two measures of students' attitudes toward diversity, and whether these relationships were moderated by race/ethnicity. Findings revealed that several perceptions of faculty practices and student-faculty interactions were positively associated with students' fourth-year diversity attitudes, including: (a) quality of faculty contact; (b) faculty interest in teaching and student development; (c) how often students had discussions with faculty whose political, social, or religious opinions were different from their own; (d) how often faculty engaged students in cooperative learning activities; (e) whether courses helped students see connections between intended careers and how they affect society; and (f) whether courses helped students understand the historical, political, and social connections of past events. Overall, findings suggest that the type and quality of each faculty practice or measure of interaction with students may be significant in terms of fostering positive diversity attitudes among students. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

This study examines how collegiate climates and practices can promote innovation capacities among an international longitudinal sample of undergraduate women. Using a pre-test/post-test quantitative design with a reliable and valid dependent measure of innovation capacities, this study employs structural equation modeling to robustly estimate collegiate effects over-and-above students' entry characteristics and personality traits. Results indicate that curricular practices (e.g., faculty challenge, course-taking patterns) and co-curricular engagement (e.g., connecting experiences) spur the development of innovation capacities among our sample of women. Findings are discussed and implications for theory, research, and practice are provided.

The purpose of this study was to use structural equation modeling to examine how the experience of racialized aggressions on social media influenced the perceptions of campus racial climate for undergraduate students of color (n = 771). Findings suggest that students who experienced racialized aggressions on social media did report less positive perceptions of campus diversity climate. Given that in-person and online environments are growing evermore seamless for students, this has implications for campus climate and diversity programming.

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, going to college has become increasingly financially difficult in the United States. Tuition prices continued to rise, state funding for higher education declined, and the mean family income declined or stagnated for all but the top 20 percent of families (Goldrick-Rab 2016). In a period where college has risen to be the preeminent way Americans can make a better life for themselves, it is becoming more difficult for Americans to pay for college. Financial aid does not cover as much of the price of college as it once did (Goldrick-Rab 2016), and college students are relying on financing methods like student loans more than ever before. Student loans, however, are not the only credit-based financial strategy college students use to pay for college (Manning 2000, 2005). With the explosion of consumer credit access from the 1980s to the 2000s, college students are using credit cards, many times to bridge gaps in their budgets as they try to pay for college. This paper utilizes data from the Education Longitudinal Study (2002-12) to examine the link between college student credit card use and bachelor's degree attainment and demonstrates that college students who carry a balance on their credit card from month to month have a lower likelihood of completing a bachelor's degree, net of other important factors. Research in the fields of financial counseling and planning, consumer studies, public policy, sociology, and health has explored college student credit card spending behaviors, associated health and educational outcomes, and the influence of family backgrounds on credit card use. This paper extends this existing body of research by considering how college student credit card use influences educational outcomes.

To improve college access for low-income students, an increasing number of public colleges and universities have implemented no-loan policies, where student loans are replaced with institutional grant aid that does not require repayment. Using detailed income measures provided by Mobility Report Card data, this study examines the effect of no-loan policies on student economic diversity at public 4-year institutions. Using a difference-in-differences design and the synthetic control method, we found that the adoption of no-loan policies at public institutions increased enrollment shares of low-income students (bottom two family income quintiles). However, the increase was minimal for students from the lowest income quintile, particularly at the most selective institutions. Our findings suggest that although no-loan policies may help improve affordability at public colleges and universities, further efforts are needed to address underrepresentation of students from the lowest part of the income distribution.

Many college students in the United States take longer than four years to complete their bachelor's degrees. Long time-to-degree can increase higher education costs by billions. Time-to-degree can be reduced if students take more credits each term. While academic momentum theory suggests that additional credits may also improve student performance, and there is a strong positive correlation between course load and student performance, high course load may reduce time investment in each course, giving high course load a negative causal effect on performance. Concern about the negative impact of course load on performance, especially for struggling students, may lead to pushback against policies to reduce time-to-degree by increasing course load. Using longitudinal data from a regional four-year university with a high average time-to-degree, we find no evidence that high course loads have a negative impact on student grades, even for students at the low end of the performance distribution. This result is consistent with a model where students substitute time away from non-education activities when their course loads increase.

A third of the 2- and 4-year undergraduates beginning college in 2011-2012 changed their major in the first 3 years of enrollment. Yet, few studies have examined the effects of major switching on student outcomes, particularly in community colleges. Major switching can delay or impede college completion through excess credit accumulation, or it can increase the probability of completion due to a better academic match. Using state administrative data and propensity score matching, we find that major switching increases certificate completion rates but moderately decreases the probability of bachelor's degree completion in community colleges for students who started with a declared major. We suggest that instead of discouraging major switching, institutions should integrate switching into program planning. Policies like common course-sequencing, cross-discipline introductory courses and flexible application of credits can allow students to revise their interests and goals without losing much time, credits, or tuition dollars.

This study estimates the short- and long-term effects of undergraduate educational debt on students' decisions to apply and to enroll in graduate school after completing requirements for a baccalaureate degree, using marginal mean weighting through stratification method (MMW-S) to analyze data from the National Center for Education Statistics Baccalaureate and Beyond 2008-2012 (B&B 08-12) survey. Although we find that historically and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups tend to accumulate higher levels of educational debt, our results indicate minimal effects of undergraduate debt on graduation school application and enrollment. We find no differences by race/ethnicity, family income, or status as a first-generation baccalaureate recipient in the effects of educational debt on graduate school application or enrollment.

This study examines the effect of participation in cooperative education (co-op) programs on engineering undergraduate students' academic and employment outcomes, with particular attention to diversity in engineering. Co-ops are partnerships between an academic institution and an employer designed to engage students in early practical work experience through rotations of full-time employment and full-time traditional classroom study. Previous studies highlight the positive academic and employment returns to participating in co-ops. However, among voluntary co-ops, it is unclear to what extent these potential benefits can be attributed to the causal effect of engagement in co-ops versus the selection of higher-performing students. This study addresses this selection issue by using propensity score matching. Data come from 12 cohorts of engineering undergraduate students from a large, research-intensive institution in the Midwest. Results indicate that co-op participants are more likely to graduate in an engineering major and to have higher overall grade point averages compared to their non-co-op peers. On average, co-op participants are also more likely to obtain engineering jobs and to earn higher starting salaries post-graduation than their non-co-op peers. Although Hispanic/Latino students are less likely to participate in co-ops, underrepresented racially minoritized students who complete co-ops are more likely to graduate in engineering and to earn higher starting salaries post-graduation than those who do not participate. Research findings provide support for promoting co-ops as a potential strategy to help improve student academic and employment outcomes with implications for potentially diversifying the engineering workforce downstream.

Given the significant need to increase and diversify graduate enrollments within computing fields, it is vital to understand what shapes students' pathways to computing graduate school. This study examines the predictors of undergraduate students' self-confidence in being admitted to computing graduate school among students who enrolled in an introductory computing course during the 2015-2016 academic year and completed both an end-of-intro-course survey as well as a follow-up survey two years later. Guided by social cognitive career theory, this longitudinal and multi-institutional study uses structural equation modeling to illustrate the direct and indirect relationships between students' social identities (specifically gender and race/ethnicity), psychosocial beliefs, perceptions of support, and self-confidence for computing graduate admission. Findings suggest that gender and racial/ethnic inequities in self-confidence for graduate admission are present during introductory computing courses, and women's early perceptions in intro courses (e.g., math self-concept) seem to play an especially vital role in explaining why women ultimately report lower self-confidence for computing graduate admission than men. Findings also highlight the key mediating role of computing self-efficacy in cultivating students' self-confidence for computing graduate admission. Taken together, these results have important implications for understanding intro computing students' perceptions about their graduate school trajectories and how to foster a more diverse graduate applicant pool.

Promoting students' ability to transfer or apply their knowledge and skills to real-life situations is critical in higher education. The current study was designed to test the likelihood that the constructs based on self-determination theory (SDT) framework help understand college students' perceived knowledge transferability. A total of 3783 undergraduates from 301 classes participated in this study. The results of a series of multilevel modeling analyses indicated that (a) competence satisfaction and identification were the most salient factors influencing students' perceived knowledge transferability; (b) the SDT-related variables together explained 64.2% of the between-student variance in perceived knowledge transferability; (c) after controlling for student-level covariates and SDT-related variables, 7.9% of the variance in perceived knowledge transferability was caused by between-class differences, and 19.6% of it could be explained by course fields and course levels. Our results, which provide evidence of multilevel factors influencing college students' perceived knowledge transferability, have implications for promoting transfer in higher education.

The study of student loan debt remains a timely and relevant higher education finance research and policy-oriented topic, especially when considering the alarming growth rates of student loan debt balances. The Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit released in May of 2018 shows that among all debt balances, student loans remain the only form of debt that virtually sextupled over the last 15-years, and this trend is not slowing down. Although aggregated trends are important, by definition they are limited in their capabilities to providing researchers, policy- and decision-makers with insights related to individual debt accumulation and, perhaps more importantly, with knowledge about the factors associated with variation of individual debt burden. Accordingly, the overarching goal of this study is to ameliorate this limitation in three meaningful ways. First, this is the first study that offers inferential estimates of the magnitude of student debt accumulation increase across two different decades (1991-2013) and institutional sectors (public 2- and 4-year colleges). Second, these estimates are based on student level undergraduate non-self-reported longitudinal loan debt disbursements. Third, the estimates not only account for individuals' baseline differences at the moment of college entry, but also account for institution- and state-level indicators that took place during college enrollment and that may be related to the variation of student loan debt reliance. Two nationally representative samples (NELS and ELS) complemented with other institution- and state-level data were analyzed using doubly robust estimators build from propensity score weights and entropy balancing approaches that were robust to unobservable selection issues using Oster's approach (J Bus Econ Stat 37(2):1-18, 2017). The results consistently indicated that, among all participants, student borrowing participation increased by 15 percentage points in the 2000s, compared to the 1990s, and individual debt accumulation at least doubled across decades. Notably, among 4-year degree holders, the 2-year path toward a 4-year degree consistently resulted in about 10% lower debt accumulation compared to the 4-year path toward a 4-year degree. Students who did not attain a 4-year degree were better served by having started college in the 2-year sector. In terms of overall debt increase, 4-year degree holders accrued about $8000 more on average than their counterparts did during the 1990s, however, the recent cohort also repaid about $11,000 more, on average (or three times as much), than participants did in the 1990s. These higher repayment behaviors observed among 4-year degree holders, resulted in similar amounts of their respective debt balances across decades. The implications are clear: students with higher propensities toward a 4-year degree attainment are likely to incur lower debt if they start college in the community college sector. However, before fully recommending this pathway, 2- and 4-year colleges' articulation agreements should be strengthened to ease transfer and eventual degree completion. Without recommending consolidation or merger between 2- and 4-year institutions, researchers and policy makers can learn from the strategies implemented by successful cases such as Perimeter College and Georgia State. Finally, 4-year entrants with lower likelihood to attain a 4-year degree may be better served by beginning college in the 2-year sector instead. Predictive analytics and machine learning techniques can be used to identify these cases, as depicted in the discussion section of the study.

Peer feedback has been shown to be an effective strategy to improve academic achievement. However, little evidence is available about the effects of peer feedback on academic outcomes other than achievement, such as academic self-concept (ASC). ASC and achievement are reciprocally related and thus mutual reinforce themselves. The present study focuses on the effect of a four week long structured web-based peer feedback intervention on ASC in the domain of academic writing as a part of a seminar assignment in a sample of undergraduate psychology students. The study investigated the effectiveness with 49 students in a randomized-controlled trial with a pre-and post-test. Each student acted as an author and a reviewer. Results indicated significant improvements in ASC for the domain of academic writing over time as compared to a control group. Furthermore, the causal effect of peer feedback compared to no feedback on ASC for academic writing was strong with d = 0.72. The effect was domain specific, as the ASCs for the sub-domains statistics and language remained unchanged by the intervention. Overall, the results revealed that participation in a peer feedback system is an effective method to enhance ASC in the context of higher education.

This study contributes new evidence on the factors associated with undergraduate study abroad participation and post-college volunteering. Drawing on Education Longitudinal Study 2002-2012 data, this study analyzes how students' ascribed characteristics, academic achievement, college environment, and participation in study abroad are associated with students' likelihood to volunteer after college. Grounded in human capital and status attainment theories, this study employs Astin's Inputs-Environment-Outcomes framework to isolate study abroad as a high-impact education practice associated with post-college volunteering. Controlling for service-learning, previous volunteering experience, and selection bias for study abroad using inverse propensity of treatment weighting (IPTW), this study provides some of the clearest evidence that study abroad is an educational experience that promotes democratic outcomes. For study abroad program providers, these results suggest that more intentional methods of engendering a desire to improve the local situation upon returning home can further promote civic engagement. On a larger scale, these results provide some relief to the worry that American higher education is not adequately preparing students for democratic citizenship while drawing attention to the fact that only a small subset of the undergraduate population participates in study abroad to receive these benefits.

Students who transfer between institutions of higher education often experience a transfer penalty or a decrease in the odds of degree completion. While the transfer pathway is deemed a responsibility shared between 2- and 4-year institutions, failures in the transfer process are typically attributed to community colleges. The aim of this study was to examine the post-transfer experiences of STEM community college transfer students with particular emphasis placed on how institutional policies and practices at 4-year institutions contributed to the transfer penalty and poorer attainment rates of this population. Implications for future research and interventions are discussed.

Colleges offer remedial coursework to help students enrolling in post-secondary education who are not adequately prepared to succeed in college-level courses. Despite the prevalence of remediation, previous research presents contradictory findings regarding its short- and long-term effects. This paper uses a doubly robust inverse probability weighting strategy to examine whether the degree completion and wage outcomes associated with remedial education vary by passing or failing remedial coursework. Using the NLSY Postsecondary Transcript-1997 data, we find that almost 30% of remedial course takers fail a remedial course. Students who took and passed their remedial coursework at both 2-year and 4-year colleges were more likely to graduate from college than similar students who did not take remediation. For both 2-year and 4-year college entrants, students who failed remedial coursework were less likely to obtain a bachelor's degree and, among degree receivers, took longer to graduate. Students who entered 2-year or 4-year colleges and who failed remedial coursework earned lower wages over time compared to similar students who never took remediation. Among 4-year college entrants, these wage differences seem to be explained completely by degree completion. However, wage differences for 2-year college entrants still remain after accounting for degree receipt. Our findings thus suggest that while many students may benefit from remedial education, a substantial number of students struggle with remedial coursework and fail to realize the intended benefits.

Using the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), this paper analyzes students' baccalaureate attainment and early labor market performance, comparing 2-year college and 4-year institution entrants and exploring the potential heterogeneous treatment effects of initiating one's college experience in a 2-year college by individual pre-college academic preparation. Utilizing propensity score matching on a rich set of student demographic characteristics, academic and high school attributes, we find that 2-year college entry sharply reduces baccalaureate aspirants' likelihood of earning a baccalaureate, and such negative effects are particularly pronounced for students in the highest quartile of pre-college math ability. In terms of labor market outcomes, female 2-year college entrants are less likely to gain full-time employment, as compared to their female 4-year institution counterparts. We also examine various mechanisms that may hinder 2-year college entrants' baccalaureate completion, including the impact of 2-year college attendance on early academic progress, challenges of the transfer process, loss of credits at the point of transfer, and post-transfer academic shock. Our results provide suggestive evidence in support of all four mechanisms.

Previous studies have documented student-faculty interaction in STEM, but fewer studies have specifically studied negative forms of interaction such as discrimination from faculty. Using a sample of 562 STEM undergraduates from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, we use hierarchical generalized linear modeling to investigate various types of student-faculty interaction in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) and in particular, the link between discrimination from faculty and retention in STEM. While Black students interacted more frequently with faculty, they were also most likely to report experiencing racial/ethnic discrimination. Overall, female, Black, and Latinx students were more likely to leave STEM by the fourth year of college than male, White, and Asian American peers. Feeling that professors made a student feel uncomfortable due to race/ethnicity was negatively linked with STEM retention. None of the traditional forms of student-faculty interaction (i.e., non-discriminatory) predicted retention. Variation in patterns by race, gender, and income are discussed, as well as implications for research, policy, and practice.

In this paper I investigate undergraduate students' discrete location choices in presence of a plethora of potential destinations and psychic costs. I demonstrate how enrolment into institutions of tertiary education is influenced by personality and social preferences. More importantly, these individual traits are found to affect the valuation of location-specific conditions in alternative study locations. Eventually, the relevance of location attributes, such as urban or labour market characteristics, varies substantially with respect to distance and individuals' personality. This has direct implications for student recruitment, since prospective students display distinct geographic sorting patterns along these traits: students featuring higher levels of patience integrate post-graduation opportunities into their decision-making. As a consequence, institutions in economically less prosperous regions might attract a specific subset of the overall student population, which might also have repercussions on student performance.

Many degree-seeking college students struggle academically and ultimately never graduate. Academic challenges and persistence within the major are especially salient issues for students who major in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Academic probation serves as a means for informing students that they are at risk of dismissal, and many colleges and universities offer services to help students placed on probation to succeed academically. This paper presents two studies that examined the effectiveness of a goal-setting academic advising intervention for improving the grades of engineering students who were on academic probation; one study used a regression discontinuity design, and the other used an experimental design. The findings of both studies support the same overall conclusion: The intervention notably increased the grades of engineering students on probation who are beyond their first year of college, but it was not effective for students in their first year. This brief academic enhancement intervention appears to constitute a cost-effective strategy for bolstering the academic success of at-risk college students after their first year.

Close to two million first-year undergraduates enroll in developmental education each year. According to recent national estimates, less than half of students who start in developmental education go on to complete gateway courses and less than one-third eventually earn a degree. However, more research is needed to better assess potential relationships between developmental courses and student outcomes. This study comprehensively analyzes the effects of enrolling in and completing developmental education on associate degree completion--a key student outcome in the 2-year sector. Data for this study came from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 and the accompanying Postsecondary Education Transcript Study. Propensity score analysis and doubly robust techniques were used to estimate more accurate causal effects, while accounting for the non-random assignment into the treatment conditions. Furthermore, this study introduces propensity score matching for multivalued treatment conditions or dose-response analysis to the study of developmental education in order to estimate the average causal effects of enrolling in various quantities of developmental education on associate degree completion. Overall, when two groups of statistically similar students were compared, developmental education generally improved the chances of earning an associate degree. The dose-response analysis revealed that the relationship between the number of developmental courses a student takes and associate degree completion is not strictly linear.

This study employs difference-in-differences estimation to explore the relationship between the implementation of state merit-aid programs and students' participation in study abroad. The relationship between implementation of these financial aid programs and study abroad participation has not been tested explicitly in prior policy or education abroad literatures. While state merit-aid programs provide students with additional economic capital that might allow them to participate in educational opportunities such as study abroad, other aspects of merit-aid programs could discourage such engagement. Indeed, analyses of a panel dataset consisting of information from all 50 states suggested either no relationship between the implementation of merit-aid programs and study abroad or a situation wherein merit-aid implementation tempers students' desires or abilities to study abroad. These findings may be the result of certain characteristics of merit-aid policies, such as a cap on the number of credit hours for which scholarship funds can be awarded or satisfactory academic progress requirements, and have important implications for state policy-makers and institutional actors. This study highlights several directions for future research on the relationship between state-level merit-aid programs and undergraduate participation in education abroad.

In this article, a large data set containing every course taken by every undergraduate student in a major university in Canada over 10 years is analysed. Modern machine learning algorithms can use large data sets to build useful tools for the data provider, in this case, the university. In this article, two classifiers are constructed using random forests. To begin, the first two semesters of courses completed by a student are used to predict if they will obtain an undergraduate degree. Secondly, for the students that completed a program, their major is predicted using once again the first few courses they have registered to. A classification tree is an intuitive and powerful classifier and building a random forest of trees improves this classifier. Random forests also allow for reliable variable importance measurements. These measures explain what variables are useful to the classifiers and can be used to better understand what is statistically related to the students' situation. The results are two accurate classifiers and a variable importance analysis that provides useful information to university administrations.

College admissions leaders increasingly desire to incorporate non-cognitive factors like grit into admissions decisions. Consequently, we examined the validity of the short grit scale (Grit-S) using data collected on undergraduates attending 38 colleges. Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), we found that Grit-S does not possess adequate model fit; however, a modified version of the scale does possess this property. Using multi-group CFA, we also found that Grit-S is relatively invariant across multiple demographic groups. Next, we examined the concurrent validity of grit with students' engagement, perceived gains, time spent studying, and grades. These results confirmed previous research that most of the predictive power of grit is contained in its perseverance of effort, not consistency of interest, dimension.

College sense of belonging and well-being constitute critical components of college student adjustment and success. Previous studies have generally measured these outcomes at one (or sometimes two) points in time, which prevents researchers from understanding the ongoing adjustment process as well as the dynamic interplay between college experiences and outcomes. This study provides unique insights by examining week-by-week data that consisted of 12,529 total responses from 882 undergraduates during their first semester of college. Fixed-effects regression analyses were used to examine the extent to which weekly changes in students' experiences and interpersonal relationships predicted corresponding changes in adjustment outcomes. Social connection, relationship satisfaction with college friends, and feeling successful in class were most strongly related to changes in belonging and well-being. Some experiences that are often overlooked in higher education research were also significant predictors; specifically, time spent exercising and relationship satisfaction with parents were associated with more favorable outcomes, whereas extensive social media use was associated with poorer outcomes. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

The attention to students' noncognitive attributes has recently flourished within academic research and public discourse. This paper adds to the literature by examining the interrelationships among several key noncognitive attributes as well as exploring direct and indirect relationships between noncognitive attributes and second-year retention. Within a multi-institutional sample of 10,622 students, academic self-efficacy, academic grit, self-discipline, and time management all load onto a single noncognitive factor with strong inter-item correlations and internal reliability. Moreover, structural equation modeling analyses indicate a sizable and positive indirect effect of noncognitive attributes on college retention, which is mediated by social adjustment, institutional commitment, and college grade point average.

Between 2001 and 2005, higher education in Italy went through a considerable process of reform according to the "Bologna Process." This paper evaluates the effects of this process on the academic performance of students. We estimate the difference in graduation probability between students who switched from pre-reform university courses to post-reform courses and students who carried on their pre-reform academic career. To this end, we considered a sample of 25,866 undergraduate students enrolled 1 year before the implementation of this policy, a number that was reduced by matching techniques to achieve a balanced sample of 1020 units, thereby allowing a causal interpretation of results. Estimates of logistic models on the balanced sample suggest that switching to the post-reform university system increases the probability of completion for younger students. Furthermore, higher socio-economic backgrounds of students are positively related to graduation probability, suggesting that the social inequalities are still noticeable when the completion rates of tertiary education are considered.

There is concern that civic engagement in the U.S. has declined recently especially among the younger generations. It is known that one of the strongest predictors of civic engagement is education level, where those with at least a college degree typically have the highest levels of civic engagement. There is also emerging evidence that college curriculum experiences have the potential to instill pro-civic dispositions. In this study, we improved on and advanced past research that examined the associations between undergraduate curriculum experiences and civic engagement. We used cohort and longitudinal data from the 2002-2012 Education Longitudinal Study to test whether experiences in six different high impact practices (HIP) as well as in the number of HIP predicted levels of civic engagement later in adulthood. Based on a series of binomial regression analyses, we found that experiences in HIP significantly predicted higher levels of civic engagement later in adulthood, especially for students who entered college with low levels of pro-civic orientations. Some of these longitudinal relationships were adjusted downward after controlling for precollege selection factors, other college experiences, and other adult outcomes. Still, the significant influence of these undergraduate HIP experiences persisted into adulthood suggesting that individuals carry their curriculum involvements into their post-college transitions including that of being engaged in their communities.

Roma university students' personal networks become unstable in the process of college transition. We describe the personal networks of these students using the model set up by Brandes et al. (in: Proceedings of the IEEE pacific visualization symposium (Pacific Vis'08), IEEE Computer Society Press, 2008) and analyse the identified groups utilizing the social capital approach. We mapped seventy-six students' networks applying contact diary. Origin, host and fellow groups significantly differ in their composition; they provide different ('bonding' or 'bridging') type of resources, and their availability to the Roma students is also different. We found significant differences between the students in their tendency to rely on certain groups in the process of academic adjustment.

Using multilevel models, this study examined whether students with varying academic ability benefit equally from perseverance and intellectual curiosity in terms of academic achievement. In addressing this question two perspectives were applied: a trait perspective, focusing on differences between students, and a state perspective, focusing on differences within students across semesters. By means of an online questionnaire, undergraduate students (N = 2272) were asked to rate themselves on perseverance and intellectual curiosity at the beginning of five consecutive semesters. Results indicate that academic ability but also personal qualities have to be taken into account to explain the differences between students in academic achievement. In particular perseverance was found to be important in explaining differences both between students and within students across semesters. Also, individual students fluctuate quite substantially in their reported perseverance and intellectual curiosity from semester to semester.

While abundant studies on college student departure exist, few studies focus on student transfer-out behaviors. One may reasonably believe that transfer students leave their institutions at different times for different reasons. Coupled with the national dataset, this study longitudinally investigated transfer students who left their initial 4-year institutions. Results suggest that student characteristics, such as race and family income, had varying effects on the timing of transfer. Social integration was found to have significant effects on reducing the likelihood of transfer.

This study describes the process of developing and validating an instrument that measures students' innovation capacities as a higher education outcome. We introduce an interdisciplinary theoretical framework used to generate items and cover extant literature drawn primarily from the fields of higher education and entrepreneurship studies. We further discuss our use of latent trait theory and item response models to guide instrument development and measure scoring. We then provide the results of a second-order confirmatory factor modeling procedure, which indicated robust model fit. We close by discussing findings and offering implications for both higher education scholars and institutional researchers.

The relationship between students and their academic institution is based on exchange. However, we have limited knowledge regarding how many exchanges students perceive, who (or what) the perceived exchange partners are, and what the perceived terms of those exchanges contain. To address this gap, we utilized a mixed-method approach to explore and describe the psychological contracts of two sets of undergraduate university students: newly entering freshman, and experienced university students. Results clearly demonstrated that students perceive numerous psychological contracts relevant to their education with a variety of partners both inside and at the boundaries of the institution. Results also demonstrated that these contracts are qualitatively and quantitatively distinct. The overarching implication of these findings is that students navigate a web of diverse exchange partners, and it would be a mistake for educators and researchers to focus exclusively on one or few relationships presupposed to be most important.

Despite the importance of preparing socially responsible graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to address the current state of poverty and inequality, very few studies in higher education have examined the development of STEM students' outcomes critical to promoting a more equitable society, typically focusing on the impact of one program or course. To address this gap in the literature, this study used frameworks of undergraduate socialization as well as social justice perspectives in STEM education to examine the undergraduate experiences and institutional contexts that predict STEM bachelor's degree recipients' development of two democratic educational outcomes seven years after college entry: social agency and values toward conducting research that will have a meaningful impact on underserved communities. The study utilized multilevel modeling on a national longitudinal sample of 6341 STEM bachelor's degree recipients across 271 institutions. Longitudinal student data from the 2004 Cooperative Institutional Research Program's (CIRP) Freshman Survey and 2011 Post-Baccalaureate Survey were merged with institutional data from the Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System and CIRP Faculty Surveys. Various undergraduate socialization experiences and institutional contexts were found to predict STEM bachelor's degree recipients' democratic educational outcomes, including academic majors, participation in student organizations and research, experiences with faculty, and peer and STEM faculty normative contexts. Implications of the findings for research, policy, and practice are discussed.