Factors Related to Persistence of Freshmen, Freshman Transfers, and Nonfreshman Transfer Students. Professional File. Number 99, Spring 2006.

This study examined second-term and second-year retention of freshmen (n=6,054) and nonfreshman transfer students (n=2,733) from DePaul University, a large, urban, private institution. The predictor variables included both achievement and noncognitive measures collected at DePaul and on the ACT Assessment. Two questions formed the basis for this research: Do variables that predict retention for freshmen (transfer and first time) maintain their validity for predicting retention for nonfreshman transfer students? Do the noncognitive data collected on the ACT Assessment enhance the institution’s ability to predict retention? To identify variables that predict second-term and second-year retention, logistic regression models were developed separately for freshmen and nonfreshman transfer students. The results supported the use of both institutional and ACT Assessment achievement and noncognitive measures to predict retention. Moreover, variables that predicted retention for freshmen generally predicted retention for transfer students.

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