First-Year Seminars Increase Persistence And Retention

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).

The environment of a seminar-based college classroom has a lot to do with student’s personal

College is indirectly served to have fun, make new friends, and learn about ourselves. As an attendant at Miami-Dade College I would never forget the real reason for enrolling in this institution. Any other individual who is a current student should know that education is the knowledge of putting potential to maximum use. Throughout the semester I have been given various assignments and objectives to comprehend making it challenging. At Miami-Dade College, the professors offer a variety of ways that can ensure academic success. My academic success this semester came with being able to be self-motivated, communicate with professors, and use available resources throughout the campus.

Some of the graduates stated they believe their determination to persist to graduation was due to having a mentor to help them throughout their college experience. A way to further this study could be to study the experiences of graduates who had mentors versus those who did not have a mentor and evaluate how this had an impact on their persistence to graduate.

First generation college students remains to be a challenge for the community college system as well as the university system (Ward, Seigel, & Davenport, 2012). The challenges extend from their lack of academic study skill practices to their lack of socialization skills (Ward, Seigel & Davenport, 2012).

To begin, the First Year Seminar course, WVUE 191, as directed by Scott Robertson himself, provided a relaxing, one-hour class that allowed students to share their personal and academic backgrounds and receive feedback on how to handle life and adulthood in school safely and responsibly. All the work assigned was simple to do, but at the same time, gave loads of insight about the ins and outs on what to expect for the rest of the semester up to graduation and beyond.

Before we had our first task force meeting the yearly data the university puts out data that showed the number of applicants was not the issue. Even when it comes to accepting the offer to come here our numbers were above average. The main problem lies in retaining these students until graduation. The numbers displayed that most students drop out or transfer in-between their freshman and sophomore year. To gain a better understanding of things on an academic level I wanted to get a faculty point of view of how their lower classman behave. I reached out to general education professors to see what their class involved and most classes were solely lecture-based. Since students are forced to take a certain number of credits before they can enter their chosen major, it can become difficult to keep the lecture engaging.

To my fellow college classmates, I'm going to set you guys up for college success. The very first thing to college success is showing up, you need drive and motivation to push yourself through college. Not all days will be stunning but if you’re going to make through college you will need have the desire to exceed. Next thing for college success is taking responsibilities for yourself, you need make sure that you have all component’s you need for yourself successful in your own system. Another thing for college success taking notes in class, not all classmates love this, but it will make you recognize important subjects that your class is trying to teach you. Great notes will make your class a lot easier for you exceed and working you get that

Spending so much time together gives little opportunity for first-year students to be exposed to older students. In a sense, putting the first-year students together constantly is like picking up a high school class and placing it in a different setting. It is important, from the beginning, to show first-year students the differences in climate between high school and college. Exposing them to older students would assist in this endeavor.

The lecture is the traditional and continues to be the key method of teaching and learning in most universities. University lecture attendance is a significant issue in universities all around the world and the drivers of this have been the subjects of a number of studies e.g. (Gump, 2004) (Dolnicar, 2009)

I have recently been thinking about withdrawing from your Honors Seminar mainly because of my inability to remember information from last semester. If I cannot do that, should I really be in an Honors Course? I wanted to talk with you about it first though because I have also been going over all the information from all my classes last semester. Even if I do withdraw from your class, it is still information I need to be able to recall. This week I have been trying to take detailed notes during class and writing the main points out after class to help remember information from class, but I wanted to ask you if it would be okay for me to ask you questions about readings from last semester and if there is any advice you could offer. I am sure

New student seminars have been part of the academic curriculum at American colleges and universities for over 100 years. Lee College in Kentucky offered the first freshman forum based class in 1882, which was followed by the first “for-credit” seminar being offered at Reed College in 1911 (University of South Carolina). After almost disappearing in the 1960s, FYE programs have enjoyed a gradual and steady rebirth since the mid-1970s. This may be attributed to the decrease of the ‘in loco parentis’ attitude that many individuals felt towards higher education during this time. These programs are now recognized as an effective way to address many of the issues and problems of contemporary college life.

Although many people will have different opinions on how to achieve personal success in college and consequently increase student retention, there are effective strategies that are proven to aid in achieving these goals.

Upon identifying programs available on various college campuses as they relate to first year students; it has become noticeable that university leaders are concerned with the retention of students within their first and second year of college. Therefore many universities have developed programs that are focused on the success of the freshman student and ensuring that group of students’ matriculations throughout their degree programs. As quoted in “The Dynamics of Organization in Higher Education (Kuh, 1996) “the frequent and increasingly predictable accusation that institutions of higher education operate in “silos” is based on their various schools, colleges, and athletic programs operating in parallel with one another, more focused on promoting than on adhering to or accomplishing broader institutional

This essay will examine how social skills and personal attributes help first year university students in the way to academic success. Glogowska, Young and Lockyer (as cited in Richardson, King, Garrett & Wrench, 2012, p.88) noted that many first year students decide to leave university as the consequence of health issue and academic challenges. Concern that academic skills are not enough for students to deal with the problem of transition period and students need more skills and abilities to reach their academic goals.