Capstone For Institutional Research : Research

In the article, “Colleges Adapt to New Kinds of Students from Abroad,” Karin Fischer (2011) explains the increase of foreign students in U.S. universities leads to make more problems in campus and how universities are trying to overcome those problems and help foreign students to adapt to campus. Fischer explains the increase of the foreign undergraduate students due to the support from foreign governments. Fischer quotes Wesley Young, the director of services for international students and scholars at the University of California at Davis, to discuss that the increase of foreign undergraduate students especially requires more care and help than graduate students. While older students know what they need to do and what to do in U.S. university,

As the widespread population of teenage international student body growth, many more promising and upstanding students came to America to develop their better selves. When the first year they come, the very different environment would be a challenge for this young generation of student who just left the protection of their parents and familiar teachers and friends. The adjustment of academic will be a fundamentally challenging for them in many different aspects.

Furthermore, the CSEI inventory scale has been applied to establish a retention strategy for first-year students and discovered that it is connected with student’s academic success. Additionally, the inventory scale uses a self-rating10-point scale to rate confidence for which scores have been shown to have high internal consistency, reliability, and validity for use. CSEI inventory scale consists of 20 items related to various matters of college life assessing a student’s sense of perceived college self-efficacy (Solberg, O’Brien, Villarreal, Kennel, & Davis, 1993). This inventory scale has two recognizable categories that emerge, one with an academic focus and another with a social focus. Total scores of the CSEI are gained by summing the responses on the 20 items. The higher total scores suggest a better sense of college

Thus, investigating what caused minority students to persist in college beyond their freshmen year provided answers as to how the selected universities

The social challenges that international students face include international students only relating to other international students. According to Macalester College, a group of Chinese students were already bonded altogether within themselves even before they came to the campus (Fischer, p. 100). Usually, American students find other students, who are planning go to the same school, on social

When international students study for the first time at a university in the United States, the first challenge almost is study. For instance, students’ communication and writing skills, the grades in each class and so on. When the student decided to study abroad, parents place great hopes on the students. Almost international students were having a bit afraid to talk with native speaker, when they first time at the university in the United States. Also, international students could not write really like the native students writing. At the same time, students must want to get a good grade in each class, but different countries have different education system.

Despite the similarities between traditional and non-traditional students, differences in adult students’ experience of and perceptions about education make their transition to college unique. In order to be successful in recruiting and retaining non-traditional students, universities need to provide resources and incentives to this sector of students. In American in the mid 1970’s, only 30% of all jobs required higher education (Gonzalez). Today, the reality is that 63% now require post-secondary education (Gonzalez). The immense number of job losses in the last few years due to the declining economy has had a large impact on the non-traditional student population. With this growing trend in education, universities need to compete

Tinto (1975, 1993, 1997) indicated that the success of college student depended on their academic integration and social integration. However, social integration in colleges has not been as consistent in predicting student persistence as academic integration (Beil, Reisen, Zea, & Caplan, 1999; Braxton, Hirschy, & McClendon, 2004). Nontraditional students was found to have less interaction with faculty and students (social integration factors) than traditional (Bean and Metzger, 1985). Nontraditional students also were reported to difficulties in institutional initiatives than traditional ones (Jalomo, 1995; Rendón, 1994).

However, the change from home to college can be difficult for international students (Mesidor & Sly, 2016). While some international students find it easy to adjust to the transition, others international students find it challenging to adjust to the transition (Mesidor & Sly, 2016). Studies show that international students experience many challenges as a result of language and cultural barriers, academic difficulties, financial difficulties, medical issues, housing concerns, food differences, alienation, homesickness, lack of social support system, racial discrimination, and cross-cultural loss) (Akanwa, 2015; Guzman et al., 2015; Mesidor & Sly, 2016; Sherry et al., 2010; Smith & Khawaja, 2011; Tung, 2011; Zhang & Goodson, 2010). According to Prieto-Welch (2016), international students as a group are regarded as a main minority population in campuses

In addition, research establishes that at two-year colleges, integration has a different influence on the predictive ability of the model (Pascarella & Chapman, 1983). Academic integration is a much greater effect than social integration. A study by Halpin examined integration on freshmen at a community college and determined that integration projected persistence, therefore finding value in Tinto’s model (Halpin, 1990). Additionally, Halpin hypothesized that perhaps students are already integrated into the college community and do not require to fit in an unknown dormitory or campus setting. This refutes critiques of the unsuitability of Tinto’s model to nontraditional students, despite the fact Tinto just proposed to relate the model

Cho and Lee (2016) created a study to find out how international students that attended colleges in the United States sought out information on the correct behaviors of life on college campuses. “Considering the continuous increase of international students, the main goal of this study was to investigate how international students’ information-seeking behaviors directly and indirectly impacted communication satisfaction with instructors and school-life satisfaction” (Cho & Lee, 2016, p.597). The researchers had to become familiar with cultural backgrounds of the students. This was an important variable to understand which provided light as to why certain students acted the ways in

This is a qualitative research study focusing on the authors’ findings in interviewing transfer students at George Mason University. They want to see how transfer students at this university define social engagement and how their definitions of engagement affect their overall sense of belonging and perceived sense of social engagement.  They find out that transfer students view engagement on more broad terms related to integration inside and outside the university and outside. They also discuss how transfer students are more likely to associate engagement with academic involvement. It is a pertinent piece of work because of the ever increasing numbers of transfer students coming to 4-year universities. The authors admit that there is not much

The researcher conducted this study in 2 stages. In the first stage 3,201 incoming first year university students aged 17-19 completed a brief survey at their orientation prior to the start of the academic schoolyear.

Transitioning into higher education presents challenges for all students, whether it’s their age or previous educational history. Numerous individuals are extremely nervous as they are entering into an advanced environment such as higher education. This because college is a new learning environment at a completely different level. However, freshmen find college to be difficult at first because it’s harder for them to adjust. That’s why many universities should have student centers in place to help students. Student centers give students the pathway for flexible learning as it results in being successful in higher education (Baužienė & Vosyliūtė 2015).

Moving from Pakistan to the United States for college was an interesting transition from me. Attending a high school that followed international curriculum helped me to become more aware of the world around me other than just the sheltered live I lived in Pakistan. As I came to Indiana University to pursue my Bachelors degree in Economics, I was anxious as to how I will be able to fit in. However, after my first week at college, I discovered that my time in high school and my summer school experience at UCLA had helped me move out of my comfort zone.