StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

College Attrition Causes and Some Resolutions - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Name Instructor Class 1 March 2012 College Attrition Causes and Some Resolutions Only 56% of those enrolled in four-year college courses graduate, which shows a large gap between college enrollees and graduates, a gap that threatens U.S. growth in the long run (Lewis)…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER98.4% of users find it useful
College Attrition Causes and Some Resolutions
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "College Attrition Causes and Some Resolutions"

Download file to see previous pages

in Roberts and Styron 2). Leonhardt notes that the U.S. education system is a good student recruiter, but poor in college retention strategies. This paper analyzes the primary causes of college attrition and seeks to present solutions to them. This paper argues that there are seven main causes of student attrition and they are: academic under-preparedness, working more than 20 hours a week while taking 3 to 4 classes, excessive extra-curricular activities, financial problems, loneliness, poor family support, and lack of student-university fit.

One of the main reasons that college students do not graduate is that they are simply unprepared for the academic challenges of their chosen degrees. Academic under-preparedness means that students are not sufficiently equipped to handle the academic needs of attending college and meeting their institution’s minimum academic standards. More than 50% of first-year students are not adequately prepared for college-level work, according to Jeff King, director of the Koehler Center for Teaching Excellence at Texas Christian University (Lewis).

Clearly, if students do not even have the basic skills or knowledge to complete their course requirements, the more likely they are to not finish college. An example is a student who does not have good English language skills. She might be able to express herself in verbal English, but she does not know how to write a college-level academic paper. Since many courses require writing, she will have problems in completing them. Several solutions to academic under-preparedness are diagnostic assessments at college entry and academic support centers.

The Koehler center is creating a tool that can help recognize students who are most at risk of dropping out (Lewis). King stresses: “There’s increasing pressure … to prove that after these thousands of dollars that parents are paying for a credential, the students are learning” (Lewis). Tools like these can help identify students who are at risk of not graduating and they can help schools introduce intervention measures that can increase their students’ chances of college success. Academic support centers are also crucial to helping students finish their degrees.

Tutorial support, writing workshops, and other services and resources can help students handle a wide range of academic challenges. The second cause of college attrition is working more than 20 hours a week while taking 3 to 4 classes. College students do not have a homogenous profile, where they are all “only” students who do not need to work, or they work for additional allowance purposes alone. Many of them are working students who struggle to balance work and school needs. They depend on their work to provide for their basic needs, such as food, rent, and transportation.

Other students are also married and with children, or are primary or secondary breadwinners in their families. If the physical, emotional, and time demands of the workplace are high enough to intrude on academic life, students will feel overwhelmed and unable to reach the minimum requirements of their educational institutions. When work demands are high, colleges can help students through their rigorous counseling and support centers. Teachers or educational professionals can counsel students to take only classes that they have the time and energy to finish.

Academic support centers are also important, since they will refer working students to centers or groups that can help them handle the challenges of

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“College Attrition Causes and Some Resolutions Essay”, n.d.)
College Attrition Causes and Some Resolutions Essay. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/english/1443493-college-attrition
(College Attrition Causes and Some Resolutions Essay)
College Attrition Causes and Some Resolutions Essay. https://studentshare.org/english/1443493-college-attrition.
“College Attrition Causes and Some Resolutions Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/english/1443493-college-attrition.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF College Attrition Causes and Some Resolutions

Cause and Effect: the Effects of the Steady Increase in the Cost of Going to College

However, in some instances the considerable boosts in the monetary helps provided by the institutions as well as the governments have assisted in alleviating the price rises for few students.... Cause and Effect: The Effects of the Steady Increase in the Cost of Going to college Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Thesis Statement 4 The Rising Costs of college 4 Reasons behind the Rising Costs 4 Effects of the Rising Costs 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction Among the grave concerns, the one that is having a noteworthy effect on the accessibility of higher education in the recent times is the increasing cost related to college education....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Student Suicide

With such occurrences as mass killings and violence in schools taking center stage in media outlets, scholars and laymen alike have sought to seek out information regarding possible causes and solutions to this general problem - death is schools.... With such occurrences as mass killings and violence in schools taking center stage in media outlets, scholars and laymen alike have sought to seek out information regarding possible causes and solutions to this general problem - death is schools....
4 Pages (1000 words) Assignment

Impacts of College Freshmen Dropout

The number of college freshman dropouts is typically cited between 1 in 4 and 1 in 5, with some sources positing arguments that nearly half of all college students fail to graduate.... Specifically, higher education paves a future and provides opportunity for students that attend college and gives them a shot at a career.... 50 years ago, college was strictly for the elite, high class Americans.... hellip; Now, it seems that every common household has at least one family member attend college....
11 Pages (2750 words) Essay

The Causes of Revolutions in Twentieth Century in Latin America

Thus, before analyzing the causes of revolution, it is empirical to have a glance into the social, cultural, geographical, political and/or economical setup of the land in particular and the region in general.... When we will analyze them all and try to map them on the chronology of the revolution, this way the causes would be highlighted themselves....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

The effect of low self esteem on college students

The stress that is brought by lack of self worth causes to the students who lack of peace on the student.... Consequences of low self-esteem on college students 1.... Depression: The feeling of not being good enough is depressing to college students....
3 Pages (750 words) Research Paper

Students should go to colleges better than universities from the beginning

The reason is some individuals may not have gotten the required grade to join their desired course (Nitza, 135).... That is why it is important for individuals to go through college then join university than joining university from the start. There are various negative impacts on students who One of the problems is that most of these students study for the sake of passing their examinations (Fernando, 50).... This is unlike in joining college first since the individual can get the required marks in college and then join university to pursue their desired courses....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Determining Causes and Effects

Stress is a common experience in every society since individuals are constantly under some kind of pressure to perform tasks or meet… Most factors causing stress to an individual are because of the individual's interaction with his/her immediate environment.... All the actions an individual engages in are meant to derive some form of satisfaction and happiness to the individual.... It is This paper seeks to establish the major causes of stress and their subsequent effects on college students....
4 Pages (1000 words) Assignment

Community Colleges in Saudi Arabia

Community colleges have been responsible for a great increase in the total college graduates in Saudi Arabia.... They are hence able to get one year, or two-year college credit, depending on their field of study, and as a result, they develop essential life skills....
13 Pages (3250 words) Term Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us