Non-Traditional Student Persistence and First Year Experience Courses

Abstract

Using the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study Risk Factor Index, students were placed into four traditional/non-traditional (NT) status categories. For each category, persistence was compared between students who completed a First-Year Experience (FYE) course and a control group of students that did not. It was hypothesized that having a FYE experience would be significantly associated with greater persistence among the most highly NT students. Attrition, analyzed over three semesters, determined that persistence was not related FYE completion.