The therapeutic relationship

This report reviews the literature concerning the causes of student attrition for both the community college and the four-year institution. These causes can be grouped as self-related and college-related. Self-related factors involve actual and perceived ability, background and motivation for college, family influences and expectations, and previous school experience. College-related factors are those which bear on the student after he arrives on campus. Being a composite of interaction between self and peer groups, faculty, curricula, and institutional practices and mores, in which expectations are tightly interwoven, these factors are far more difficult to evaluate and change for the better. The persister and the dropout are mainly distinguished by respective success in adapting to a situation, in establishing satisfactory personal relationships, and in adjusting goals in light of realities. Psychological counseling, compensatory education programs, sound financial counseling, and vocational and professional awareness sessions must be seen as integral parts of any college situation. One may only conclude that too many students are being lost from the ranks of today's colleges, and the problem is at least partly solvable. (Author/AH