In This Issue Current Issue Archives

October 2005

Recruitment & Retention - October 2005 - Full Issue
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What Prospective Students Want Most: Six New Personas
Even if prospective students don’t know what they want to major in, they probably have at least a budding sense of what they hope to get from college. Whether that outcome is stable employment, the chance to serve the community, or simply the prestige of attending a “name brand” institution, it’s probably worth your institution’s time to know.

The Six Student Personas
Stamats’ annual TeensTALK survey this year asked students about their aspirations and values. Using these responses in tandem with demographic information, the marketing communications firm created six student “personas.”

Whole-Campus Effort Boosts Persistence Rates
Everybody’s doing his or her part to improve student retention at Utah State University. Even the president is making sacrifices: Ongoing remodeling will soon turn the basement of his on-campus home into a student recreation and gathering space. The campuswide effort has paid off. Over the past three years, retention rates have increased from 66 percent to 75 percent. The retention of high-ability students improved from 80 percent to 96 percent during the same time.

Residence Life Program Helps Students Bounce Back from Probation
Much of the academically geared programming in residence life focuses on general study tips and time-management practices. But at Pennsylvania College of Technology, the residence life office is taking academic-success programs even further.

'Graduation Green Light’ Helps Students Finish Degrees
About 6,000 California State University–Long Beach students graduated last spring. But as in previous years, some students who applied to graduate ended up not completing their degrees. They can expect to hear from Project Green Light, a program started in 2003 to help students who are just a few credits shy of graduation complete their degrees.

What Makes These Schools So Good? Project Examines Student Success Leaders
Why do some institutions—even those with relatively modest funding or student profiles—have better graduation rates than expected? A new book, Student Success in College: Creating Conditions That Matter, suggests a few answers.