The relationship between undergraduate Hispanic students\u27 choice of living arrangements and retention, academic achievement and graduation at a Hispanic-serving institution

Retaining and graduating Hispanic students are paramount to the overall success of colleges and universities. Given the excessive amounts of money spent to recruit students, and the impact on the institution when students depart prematurely, action needs to be taken by institutions to increase Hispanic student retention and counter the negative impacts on institutions including: instability of institutional enrollments, decline in institutional budgets, and public negative perceptions of institutional quality. Despite significant efforts on the part of many colleges and universities to increase Hispanic student retention and graduation rates, these rates have remained relatively low. A possible solution to disappointing Hispanic student retention and graduation rates is to explore options for Hispanic students to live on-campus. To fully understand the complexities facing Hispanic students, this study examined the linkages among high school GPA, sex, and income (Pell Grant eligibility) to living arrangements and retention, academic achievement, and graduation rates of Hispanic students at a Hispanic-Serving Institution. This quantitative study provided a statistical analysis comparing cohorts of full-time Hispanic students who lived on campus to cohorts of full-time Hispanic students who lived off campus to determine if differences existed with regard to the students’ living arrangements, retention, academic achievement, and graduation. This was a longitudinal study that examined six years of data (2006-2012) for over 18,500 first-time-in-college Hispanic students (N = 18,533). Data was collected electronically. For the binary outcome variables, retention and graduation, logistic regression analysis was used; with the continuous variable to assess academic achievement, grade point average, the general linear model was used. The findings were surprising, and the researcher had to reject all three hypotheses; the findings supported: Hispanic students who live off-campus during their first year of college are more likely to be retained; Hispanic students who live off-campus have higher cumulative college grade point averages; and, Hispanic students who live off-campus are more likely to graduate college