An examination of first- to second-year persistence of first-generation college students

This dissertation uses a mixed-methods design to examine persistence into the second year by students\u27 parental education level. The institution selected for this dissertation is Temple University, a large, urban, public university in the Northeast. Using Tinto\u27s (1993) model of student departure as a conceptual framework, the quantitative component examines how pre-entry characteristics (income, high school academic preparation, and family encouragement) relate to student persistence based on parental education level. In the quantitative component, descriptive and logistic regression analyses examine persistence into the second year for students. The qualitative component then examines student perceptions of how support and academic preparation are defined by students whose parents have no education beyond high school. This component also explores student perceptions of how institutional interventions support them in persisting into the second year. Eighteen students, whose parents have no education beyond high school and who were predicted to be at risk for not persisting into the second year according to the University\u27s at-risk model, are interviewed. These students are persisters who reenrolled in fall 2011. Persistence into the second year increases with parents\u27 level of education. Differences in persistence rates by income are marginally significant but not substantively different. Persistence into the second year also increases with high school grade point average, as well as with SAT scores. The likelihood of persisting into the second year is higher for students who have a high level of family encouragement, than for students who do not have high family encouragement. In the qualitative analysis, students whose parents have no education beyond high school described the roles of encouragement, financial support, and academic preparation and support. They received support from a variety of sources, including individuals who are not family members. All students who were interviewed had aspirations of completing at least a bachelor\u27s degree. Most students lived on-campus and all eighteen commented on the time they spent with friends from school. None of the students recognized receiving outreach from their advisors even though all but one student had interacted with an advisor