Is Attrition A Negative Impact On Late Stage Doctoral Attrition?

Academic Advisors have been needed for as long as there have been higher education institutions. America established its first collegiate institutions in the eighteenth century. It was during the nineteenth century “Faculty within specialized curricula took charge of guiding students to the classes they needed” (Gillespie, 2003). Today, the field of academic advising encompasses all of those same needs from the nineteenth century and more. The needs of students have changed and expanded drastically from when America 's first colleges were established. It is not uncommon for an advisor to assist the student in not only selecting which classes they should take but also helping them to determine what career they should have. Essentially that advisor is taking on the responsibility of facilitating the planning of a student 's next four years and their next forty years as well.

The purpose of Guiffrida’s (2006) paper is to provide empirical research evidences to support Tinto’s (1993) theory of student departure and highlighted the limitation of the theory by recognizing its failure to incorporate the study of psychological and cultural variables; therefore, it becomes incomplete and inappropriate when applying the theory to deal with minority students.

The three purposes and missions of higher education are education, research, and public service. The first one to be addressed is education. In his paper, “Goals: The Intended Outcomes of Higher Education,” author Bowen (1977) has stated education is “not only the academic curricula, classes, and laboratories, but also all those influences upon students flowing from association with peers and faculty members and from the many and varied experiences of campus” (p. 24). Educating students is an important mission for higher education, but educating students is not limited to their academics. The mission for higher education involving education can be categorized as cognitive learning, affective development, and practical competence (Bowen, 1977, p. 27). While cognitive learning is based on expanding on students’ knowledge, affective development and practical competence are based on the overall being of the student. The intent of affective development is to help enhance

Student attrition is a growing issue among community college administrators but there’s been little research into how community colleges’ policies and practices reflect this concern, or how they affect student attrition rates. Research has shown that students in online courses continue to experience higher attrition rates than their counterparts in traditional face-to-face classes despite the advantages offered by web-based technology (Shea & Bidjerano, 2014). In prior studies, researchers have found a multitude of factors contributing to high attrition rates among college students in online classes. A number of studies found that certain environmental/life circumstance factors can affect student attrition rates in online classes (Aragon & Johnson, 2008; Atchley et al., 2013; Harrell & Bower, 2011; Park & Choi, 2009; Wigenbach, & Akers, 2013: Shea and Bidjerano, 2014; Xu and Jaggars, 2013; Xu and Jaggars, 2014). These factors include:

The theory evolved to align with the author’s intent of the study, which was to determine how doctoral students view their identity and experience as they perform various task in becoming a peer or scholar. The author’s data source involved a single week log of experiences, pre-interview questionnaires, and two interviews to discuss the logs and the questionnaire. (p. 257) The author identified, analyzed, and reported patterns in the collected data from a qualitative software analysis program.

The relevance to this study was important because it examines factors that cause withdrawals and my assist with increasing retention rates. The information collected is significant to all stakeholders who wish to retain minority students in higher education. Both public and private universities can stand to increase their knowledge base of how to improve higher education retention for minority students.

The successful completion of the doctoral program requires one to make significant sacrifices and accommodations. Majority of the doctoral students are usually motivated and eager to complete their program as soon as possible. However, many students often enroll for doctoral programs without a complete understanding of the heavy demands of such a program. The doctoral program is unique and bears little resemblance to many previous degree courses and so without the necessary accommodations one can find completing it an uphill task. Each student brings to the program his/her own set of academic strengths and weaknesses (Wisdom, & Leavitt, 2015). The attitude and abilities of each and every doctoral student is unique and so is their management of the program. Therefore, the most important ingredient to doctoral success is the capability to leverage such inherent strengths and find effective ways

Attrition is the rate in which students disenroll from a post-secondary institution, which was defined in O’Keeffe’s (2013) article. Past research has suggested that the lack of participation and the culture shock of some students have contributed in such high attrition rates (O 'Keeffe, 2013). From the outcomes of these researches, universities have implemented programs to retain and increase retention rates. However, when it comes to attrition rates, it seems that one population of students goes unnoticed.

Review the document defining the Dissertation Roles and Responsibilities on the DC Network. Find it using the DC Network search function. Identify any questions you have on the responsibilities. How does the role of your chair differ from the role of instructors in previous classes you have taken? How is your role different? Are these roles different than you expected? Why or why not? Why is it very important to you, personally and professionally, to be proactive in establishing a positive working relationship with your chair and committee members? Knowing that professional difference of opinion or conflict is inevitable on dissertation committees, how will you leverage these to improve creativity?

Conclusion: In conclusion it is evident that student retention is dependent on the personal success of

Many colleges and universities throughout the United States and several other countries face a common problem. Student retention is a growing problem across the nation for all ethnic groups and all ages. Each individual who chooses to drop out of school has their own personal reasons as to why they do. However, many drops out can be completely avoided. When students drop out they are not clearly thinking about how it’s going to affect their future, the future of their children and even grandchildren. Although there are several reasons as to why students drop out of school, we will be exploring a few as it relates to why student retention is a growing problem.

My first semester of my first year at Glendon College is soon coming to an end with only two papers and one final exam left to write. As I reflect back on the semester, I recall telling myself at least once a week that I wanted to drop out of school, followed by many breakdowns, crying fits and calling defeat. The past few months, haven’t been at all easy for me, I have thought many times I wasn’t intelligent enough to be in university, I was disappointed with some of the grades I received and I was constantly engulfed in a swarm of stress. Despite all these tough times, I have had many good one’s as well, I have made new friends which are now integral to my everyday life and I have enhanced my knowledge to a new degree.

This course like my entire first semester of university have provided me with both many challenges as well as taught me many lessons not only for my university career, but for the rest of my life. As I reflect back on the semester, I recall telling myself at least once a week that I wanted to drop out of school, followed by many breakdowns, crying fits and calling defeat. The past few months, haven’t been at all easy for me, I have thought many times I wasn’t intelligent enough to be in university, I was disappointed with some of the grades I received and I was constantly engulfed in a swarm of stress. Despite all these tough times, I have had many good one’s as well, I have made new friends which are now integral to my everyday life and I have enhanced my knowledge to a new degree. Some of the many lessons that I’ve already learned in my short university experience include how to manage my time, the importance of meeting deadlines as well as the continuous struggle of balancing the various different facets of life.

Further elaborating this example, a senior leader criticized the merit of this course and the General Studies degree. The argument was that it had little value to the department. The remarks bruised my excitement and motivation adding to the disappointed of not completing my architectural engineering degree in my youth. To meet my employer’s concern, I decided to create a win-win by transferring to a better-suited degree meeting both our needs. I contacted my Drexel advisor, however, I was quickly disappointed to learn that my career in construction management barely qualified me as a sophomore. This meant I had to forfeit more than half my credits. Keeping my eyes on the prize is now challenged and a reminder of my superstition of jinxing the outcome by envisioning the end. However, to exercise Stephen Covey’s second habit, I reflected on our unit-5 assignment that highlighted Prof Kitao’s, The Usefulness of Uselessness where she states; “The substance lies more in the studying done than in the lessons the courses teach” (Kitao, 1999). Acknowledging her wisdom, I forge ahead with the end in mind and intent to combine my fulfilled personal, and very successful professional life-experiences with the learning skills gained in my earned degree.

In Mel Levine’s article All Kinds of Minds, he states that “motivation drops from a bad grade, family issues, what they hear on the bus, or a remark from the teacher” ( Levine 38). Such emotions such a those given can make an impact on how he or she views themselves plus can last for a long period of time. In contribution to the attribution theory, the outcomes of behavior will take a rise. The best concept in overlooking those emotions is simply developing a positive state of mind. The more the student thinks positively, the less negative emotions will intrude.