The Non-Returning Undergraduate
Joe Filkins
Office of Institutional Planning and Research
Background
For several years, the Office of Institutional Planning and
Research has prepared various studies of student retention, providing a range of
demographic analyses emphasizing factors that are potentially related to student
retention. In other words, much attention has
been paid to those students who are retained – to understand the characteristics of
these students in the hopes of learning something that will help us retain more students. However, another strategy would be to study
students who do not return to DePaul. What
reasons do students have for not returning? Have
they graduated? If not, do they enroll at other institutions or drop out of higher
education entirely? Previously, information on
transfers was not easily obtainable, usually requiring a survey of non-returning students. Such surveys have notoriously low response rates
and the information provided could be described as limited at best. However, a service offered by the National Student
Clearinghouse allows institutions to obtain subsequent enrollment data for their
non-returning students. For this report, all
undergraduates who were enrolled in the Fall 2002 but not Fall 2003 were studied. Subsequent enrollment data were obtained and
responses to DePaul’s Student Survey were investigated.
National Student Clearinghouse
Formerly known as the National Student
Loan Clearinghouse, the NSC collects enrollment and degree information from over 2,500
post-secondary institutions, representing over 85% of currently enrolled students. One service they offer is called EnrollmentSearch
whereby institutions (for a fee) can submit a list of previously enrolled students and
receive data back about the subsequent enrollments of these students, including the
institution(s) of enrollment and matriculation date(s).
Using student name and birth date[1],
EnrollmentSearch will search the NSC data for the subsequent enrollments of students. While the Clearinghouse has been in existence since
1993, it is only in recent years that the comprehensiveness of their data has increased. Currently, the Clearinghouse is best used for
undergraduate enrollments.[2]
The Current Study
In Fall 2002, DePaul enrolled 14,343 undergraduate students. Of these, 4,794 (roughly one-third) were not
enrolled the following fall term. Not
surprisingly, the most common reason for an undergraduate to not return was that he/she
graduated. In this instance, nearly half
(2,374 of the 4,794, or 49.5%) had received their baccalaureate degree. This leaves 2,420 students unaccounted for. Returns from the Clearinghouse found that 694 of
these students (28.7% of non-returning, non-graduated undergraduates) had matriculated at
another institution at some point after leaving DePaul.
The remaining 1,726 students (71.3% of the non-graduated non-returnees) were
not enrolled at DePaul or elsewhere during the Fall 2003 term. First, this report investigates the transfer-out
phenomenon, providing information pertaining to where students transfer. Then, after some
demographic comparisons, student perceptions of their experiences at DePaul are
considered. With these perceptions, returning
students are included for comparison purposes.
Transfer-Outs: Where Do They Go?
Not only does the Clearinghouse tell us if
former DePaul students enroll elsewhere, the data also provides the institutions that
receive these students. For the 649 students
who had not graduated from DePaul and were identified as enrolled elsewhere, over one-half
had enrolled at another four-year institution (public or private). Another one-third had enrolled at a two-year school
outside of the City Colleges of
Demographic Differences
The inclusion of a student identification
indicator in the dataset returned from the Clearinghouse allows for some study of the
differences in where students transfer across a variety of demographic areas. Comparisons made here include differences in
transfer-out institutions by college, class, race, gpa and home geographic origin.
Table 1 (see Appendix) provides a demographic comparison of the students in each of these groups. While demographically, there was a great deal of similarity between the overall population of undergraduates and the subset of those who left, demographic differences emerge when one uncovers the underlying basis for not re-enrolling at DePaul. Not surprisingly, those who graduated were more likely to have been upper-level students (mostly seniors) during 2002. Over three-quarters of these students were full-time. Those who transferred to another school were most typically early in their academic careers (freshmen or sophomores – nearly one-third entered as New Freshmen during the Fall 2002), were under the age of 24, and were attending DePaul full-time. A different pattern emerges when the non-enrolled, non-transfer-out students with nearly one-third enrolled in SNL and over one-third of African-American or Latino origin.
By College
The table below provides a within college snapshot of the status of each college’s non-returning students. Over half of non-returning students from Barat had transferred to another institution and nearly two-thirds of non-returning SNL students were not enrolled at another institution. In terms of where the students who transfer out enroll, the chart to the right shows, students in CTI and SNL predominantly re-enrolled at a community college, possibly as a first stop onto another institution. Table 2 in the Appendix provides a college-by-college listing of the top receiving institutions of transfers from DePaul
By Class
Over half of non-returning freshman were re-enrolled at other
institutions by Fall 2003, and over one-quarter of sophomores. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of
non-returning seniors had graduated. Most of the non-returning, not-enrolled sophomores
were former SNL students. The chart below shows, for those students who transfer out,
where they re-enroll.
Freshmen and the small number of seniors who did not graduate were more likely to re-enroll at a local community college. Sophomores and upper level students were equally likely to re-enroll at a two- or four-year college, with about 60% going to four-year schools.
African-American and Latino transfer-out students were much more likely to re-enroll at one of the City Colleges than were Asian or Caucasian students. Across all four ethnic groups, we see about 25-30% of students re-enrolling at private four-year institutions.
By GPA
Students with lower GPAs tend to transfer to the two-year schools (
Geographic Origin
Where students originate from,
geographically, appears to play a strong role in where they transfer to, should they
decide to leave DePaul. In general, students
of
Why Do Students Leave?
Most theories of student retention suggest
that students must develop some combination of an academic and social affinity with the
institution. These affinities need to be
developed early in a student’s career, and if such affinities do not develop, then
the student is more likely to leave without a degree.
To investigate students’ perceptions of the academic and social climate
of the institution, OIPR has conducted a survey of students that includes items on their
overall and academic experiences, their perceptions of the social environment at the
university, and their satisfaction with academic advising and career development[3]. Of the 4,796 non-returning students in this study,
690 had completed this survey last spring quarter. Of
these students, 488 (70.7%) had graduated, 135 (19.6%) were not enrolled anywhere, and 67
(9.7%) had transferred out. Responses were
compared across these three groups, along with the 2,156 responses from undergraduates who
returned for the Fall term, to investigate possible reasons for students to opt to
transfer out of DePaul.[4]
Because of the relatively small sample sizes, the following is to be interpreted as
suggestive and in no way definitive.
For each section of the survey, composite scores were created by averaging the responses to each item within the section for each respondent. The resulting index scores were compared statistically across the three groups. The following charts provide both index score and item-by-item comparisons across the three groups.
Seven items were asked pertaining to students’ perceptions of their overall experiences at DePaul. As can be seen in the figures, both for the index as well as the individual items, students who transfer out tended to perceive their overall experiences less positively than either those students who graduated or those students who were simply not enrolled anywhere. Statistical tests showed that the mean for students who transferred out was significantly lower than the means for the other groups (which did not significantly differ from each other).
Looking at the individual items that make up this index, we see that students who transfer out had consistently lower mean scores than either of the other two groups. Note, also, the item “If I could start again, I would choose to re-enroll at DePaul” was the lowest mean across all items for the Transfer Out group, suggesting that their decision to transfer was already made, or being made, at the time they completed this survey (Spring quarter, 2003).
Academic Experiences
Items on
students’ perceptions of their academic experiences were of three types: perceptions
of coursework, interactions with faculty, and their generalized academic experience. As shown in the following charts, there were not
many differences across these three groups over the different item types. In general, students were more positive about their
experiences with faculty than with their experiences in the classroom. However, this may be a function of the items since,
as is shown in the figure at the bottom, the two coursework questions that focused on
class content had much higher ratings than the other two items (one on course availability
and one on the Liberal Studies core). Statistically,
there were no significant differences across the three groups of non-returning students
for the coursework and faculty indices. The
mean general academic experience index for graduated students was significantly higher
than the mean for the other groups.
Also note among the individual items that students who transfer out probably are not doing so because they are not performing well academically. They perceive themselves performing as well as expected, but they are considerably less satisfied with their overall academic experiences and intellectual development.
Campus Climate
Like the section
on academic experiences, items pertaining to students’ perceptions of DePaul’s
campus climate were of three types: student friendships, perceptions of mission, and
general campus atmosphere. While the data did
not show any substantial differences across groups for the perceptions of mission and the
general campus atmosphere, a statistically significant difference was found for the
student friendships index between the graduated and transfer out groups. The student friendships mean for the not enrolled
group did not significantly differ from either the graduated or the transfer out group.
Looking at the individual items, it does appear that the transfer out group had some difficulty in making friends at DePaul, yet the friendships that were made were perceived as personally satisfying.
Academic Advising and Career Development
Six items were
used to assess students’ perceptions of academic advising and career development
(three for each area). The charts show, and
statistical tests confirm, that little to no difference exists across the three groups in
their perceptions of these two aspects of their educational experiences at DePaul. For academic advising, the ratings were uniformly
low across groups. Mean ratings were markedly
higher for the career development items.
Examination of the individual items further shows the lack of significant differences in the mean scores across the groups on the advising items. For the career development items, it does appear that those who transfer out might be concerned about their graduate school prospects, as this group does have a lower mean score on that particular item.
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Conclusions
This study of non-returning undergraduates
investigated three aspects of these students: their
demographics (or what they look like); where students who transfer out re-enroll; and
difference in perceptions of their undergraduate experiences at DePaul across the three
groups of non-returning students (those who graduated, transferred, or simply did not
re-enroll anywhere). The main findings from
this study were:
ü Students who transfer out tend to be earlier in their academic careers (freshmen and sophomores) and were attending DePaul full-time;
ü Students who did not enroll elsewhere were attending DePaul part-time and tended to be relatively older students;
ü Freshmen tended to transfer to community colleges, as did students with relatively lower GPA’s;
ü African-American and Latino students were more likely to transfer to City Colleges than Asian and Caucasian students;
In general, students who choose to leave DePaul are doing so with a generally positive attitude about higher education as a whole. Of those that do re-enroll elsewhere, more than half are choosing to go to other four-year institutions. In other words, it does appear that these students are serious in their pursuit of the baccalaureate degree. Those students who have academic problems at DePaul are more likely to enroll at a two-year institution, possibly with the hope of working through these difficulties so that they can once again return to a four-year school. Future studies will investigate if these students do eventually complete a baccalaureate degree, either at DePaul or elsewhere.
The results on the items of students’ perceptions suggested that students who transfer out tended to be less satisfied with their overall experiences at DePaul; however, their perceptions of their academic experiences at DePaul were on a par with other non-returning students. Also, students who transfer out perceive themselves performing as well as expected, but they are considerably less satisfied with their overall academic experiences. The likelihood is that the consistently lower scores of the transfer out students is indicative of some systematic factor or factors impacting their re-enrollment decisions. However, such a conclusion would be an oversimplification. These relationships, while worthy of further study, are complex, and more than likely involve interactions with other factors such as financial aid that are not included in this study. Future research on the transfer-out phenomenon should consider these other reasons for students to withdraw.
TABLE 1: Demographic
Comparisons
TABLE 2: Where Students
Transfer To By College
These are the top institutions where students transfer from DePaul, with the number of students in parentheses.
BARAT COLLEGE OF LOYOLA
UNIVERSITY |
COMMERCE NORTHERN COLLEGE OF |
CTI MORAINE VALLEY CC (4) |
EDUCATION MORAINE VALLEY CC (2) 16 other institutions with 1 each |
LAS LOYOLA
UNIVERSITY MORAINE VALLEY CC (10) |
MUSIC NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY (1) UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST LOUIS (1) |
THEATRE NEW NORTH HARRIS MONTGOMERY CC (1) NORTHERN NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY (1) |
Note:
[1] Because of FERPA regulations, institutions are not allowed to search the Clearinghouse using SSN as the student identifier. Institutions have the option of including an alternative unique student identifier, which is appended to the data returned to the institution allowing for simple merging with university data.
[2] While some schools submit graduate students enrollments along with their undergraduate enrollments, the database on graduate enrollments is not nearly as comprehensive. It is a hope that, in the future, DePaul can use the Clearinghouse to determine if and where our graduates matriculate in post-baccalaureate programs.
[3] Note that all items utilized a 5-point agreement scale with higher values indicating more agreement with the item (1=Strongly Disagree and 5=Strongly Agree).
[4] To more accurately assess differences across the three groups, SNL students were removed from these analyses as they disproportionately comprise the “not enrolled” group and tend to have substantially higher mean ratings across items on the survey. The resulting n’s for this part of the study were 413 graduated, 88 not enrolled, and 57 transferred out.