In the fall of 2002, Oakton launched a retention initiative under the leadership of Irene Kovala, Vice President for Academic Affairs. A Retention Task Force was appointed; one specific project was to conduct a research study to gain insights into students’ objectives at Oakton and the factors associated with their persistence at the College from the fall to the spring semester. In this In the Abstract we report the key results of one component of the research study: a beginning-of-term survey of students enrolled in 33 randomly selected classes.

A total of 367 students provided usable SSNs and are the sample on which the beginning-of-term survey results are based. We found these students, compared to other students enrolled in the Fall 2002 semester, were more likely to persist to the Spring 2003 semester (76% to 59%). Using a statistical method called logistic regression, we examined a number of variables to determine which ones were associated with retention (student returning for the Spring semester). The variables included a student’s age, Oakton GPA, Oakton credits earned, prior attendance at Oakton, college credits or degrees earned anywhere prior to the fall term, student’s objective at Oakton (transfer, career-related or other), ethnicity, gender, plans to attend Oakton in the spring, attendance at an Oakton orientation session for new students, whether the student had taken assessment tests, whether the student said he knew where to go for information about financial aid, academic advising or getting involved in student activities, satisfaction with Oakton, expectations to transfer, whether the student had talked to an Oakton counselor or advisor, whether Oakton was the first or lower choice college, and whether a student would recommend Oakton to a friend.

Only three variables are significantly associated with retention when all relevant variables in the study are examined simultaneously: plans to return for the Spring 2003 semester, age, and having talked with a counselor or advisor. Assuming all other factors are held constant, the expected odds of a student persisting to the Spring 2003 semester are