Academic Mortality and Survival of Students of the Freshman class of 1946 through Senior Year 1950 at the Utah State Agricultural College

In the vernacular of higher education, withdrawal from college before graduation is known as student mortality. Staying for the full course of study is called survival. Students and their parents so often fix their attention on the business of gaining admission to college that they fall into the easy error of thinking that a degree will automatically follow from the allotted time spent there. The fact is that, on average, half of the class will have fallen by the wayside. This study is not an attempt to set down the reason for the student mortality at the Utah State Agricultural College. A survey of available data revealed that the variables encountered would reduce that segment of the study to a matter of speculation and therefore the reasons for withdrawal are not an aspect of this study. The only information available concerning reasons for discontinuing college is a brief statement made by those students who actually completed formal withdrawal procedures. The writer found that a majority of students who discontinued college did so at the end of a quarter or at the end of the regular school year, and therefore did not file withdrawal statements. This study concerns a select group of students who were assembled for freshman registration. What happened to the group between the beginning of the freshman year 1946 and commencement day 1950 is the problem projected. The period 1946 to 1950 is not necessarily typical of the history of higher education. Many students, veterans of World War II, had enrolled at the College under the privileges afforded them in Public Laws 16 and 346. It would be safe to say that a number of students in this study would not have enrolled in college had not the G. I. educational benefits been made available to them. As a matter of fact, a significant percentage of students indicated to the writer that the G. I. Bill of Rights was the foremost reason for enrollment. While 787 cases in the study are veterans, 510 cases are not veterans. The writer does believe that he has a representative sampling of College students of this particular period and therefore went forward with the problem