Acknowledgments vii Preface xiii Chapter 1. Educational Attainment: Overall Trends, Disparities, and the Public Universities We Study 1 Chapter 2. Bachelor's Degree Attainment on a National Level 20 Chapter 3. Finishing College at Public Universities 32 Chapter 4. Fields of Study, Time-to-Degree, and College Grades 57 Chapter 5. High Schools and "Undermatching" 87 Chapter 6. Test Scores and High School Grades as Predictors 112 Chapter 7. Transfer Students and the Path from Two-Year to Four-Year Colleges 134 Chapter 8. Financial Aid and Pricing on a National Level 149 Chapter 9. Financial Aid at Public Universities 166 Chapter 10. Institutional Selectivity and Institutional Effects 192 Chapter 11. Target Populations 207 Chapter 12. Looking Ahead 223 Appendix A. The Modern Evolution of America's Flagship Universities by Eugene M. Tobin 239 Notes 265 List of Figures 337 List of Tables 347 List of Appendix Tables 349 References 357 Index 377

Crossing the Finish Line:: Completing College at America’s Public Universities (Association for Institutional Research, May 30, 2010)

The Nature of Prejudice

By William G. Bowen, Matthew M. Chingos and Michael S. McPherson (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2009), 390 pp, £19.99 (hbk), ISBN 978‐0‐6911‐3748‐3 Reviewed by David Palfreyman, Bursar and...

Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America’s Public Universities

Mentorship is a catalyst capable of unleashing one's potential for discovery, curiosity, and participation in STEMM and subsequently improving the training environment in which that STEMM potential is fostered. Mentoring relationships provide developmental spaces in which students' STEMM skills are honed and pathways into STEMM fields can be discovered. Because mentorship can be so influential in shaping the future STEMM workforce, its occurrence should not be left to chance or idiosyncratic implementation. There is a gap between what we know about effective mentoring and how it is practiced in higher education. The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM studies mentoring programs and practices at the undergraduate and graduate levels. It explores the importance of mentorship, the science of mentoring relationships, mentorship of underrepresented students in STEMM, mentorship structures and behaviors, and institutional cultures that support mentorship. This report and its complementary interactive guide present insights on effective programs and practices that can be adopted and adapted by institutions, departments, and individual faculty members.

The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM

Mentoring supports professional success in a myriad of fields; in the physical sciences, mentoring increases the retention of diverse groups of students. While physics education has made progress in classifying the availability and structural components related to mentoring programs, little is known about the qualitative nature of mentoring relationships. This article draws from frameworks in science identity and belongs to analyze the nature of relationships in the mentoring program offered by the Sundial Project at Arizona State University, which aims to help new students with diverse backgrounds succeed in physics and related majors. To provide insight into mentoring relationships, we analyze over 150 reports submitted by mentors and mentees in a near-peer mentoring program. Mentoring groups enjoyed positive rapport and often remarked upon becoming friends. As such, mentoring relationships provided mentees with both psychosocial and academic support. Mentoring supported students to deal with a wide variety of topics, ranging from academic to personal, according to the needs of individual mentees. Moreover, outcomes of students in the mentoring program were favorable; the mean GPA of participating mentees was 3.49 for their first college semester. Mentors acted both as guides who shared information and as caring friends who providing psychosocial support, including normalizing struggle. These connections supported students to develop a sense of belonging and positive science identities.

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Increasing STEM success: a near-peer mentoring program in the physical sciences

This review summarizes published studies on undergraduate mentoring programs from 2008 to 2012. Twenty studies met the inclusion criteria, which included empirical research on formal mentoring programs with undergraduate students as mentees or mentors. Each study was assessed based on limitations identified in two earlier reviews of the mentoring literature: definition, theory, and methods. Results from this review indicate minimal progress has been made in these three areas. However, every study included the functions of mentoring, and most studies were guided by a theory or a conceptual framework. Aspects of social validity, a construct not previously examined, were assessed and found to be present in 50% of studies. Finally, information on primary mentoring program components, another dimension not previously examined, was absent in 75% of studies, making replication difficult. Future research needs to specify program components, employ rigorous research designs to guide evidence-based practice in unde...

/pdf/a-review-of-undergraduate-mentoring-programs-3spghbx595.pdf

A Review of Undergraduate Mentoring Programs

Academic performance is a primary predictor of college graduation, yet few studies have examined one of the earliest indicators of academic performance—first-semester grade point average (GPA). Giv...

The Role of First-Semester GPA in Predicting Graduation Rates of Underrepresented Students:

Abstract:This study examines the impact of Illinois Promise, a loan replacement grant for low-income students, on college graduation within five years. A quasi-experimental design using propensity score matching is employed for first-time, full-time students enrolled as freshman from fall, 2007 through fall, 2009. Eligibility criteria are used to construct the comparison group of one-to-one matches for a total of 414 students. Results show the odds ratio of graduating within five years is 2.4 times more likely for I-Promise students in relation to the low-income comparison group. Policy and practice implications are discussed.

Susan Gershenfeld

Papers

A Review of Undergraduate Mentoring Programs

The Role of First-Semester GPA in Predicting Graduation Rates of Underrepresented Students:

The impact of a promise: A loan replacement grant, low-income students, and college graduation

The impact of the Illinois Promise Grant on college graduation