Student major choices and community college persistence

Abstract

This article presents the results of an adaptation to a community college of Simpson's (1987) model for tracking student persistence within major and at the institution. The study examines persistence and performance of a cohort of students who first enrolled in the fall of 1984 and whose initial major was in one of the nine curricula with a minimum of 50 new students that term. The article describes software used and provides a discussion of the special issues that arise in looking at persistence within a community college setting. Also provided are benchmark figures showing persistence within selected majors at a two-year college, figures the same institution can use as a basis for investigating changes over time and that other institutions can use for comparative purposes.