Factors of One-Year College Retention in a Public State College System.

This paper explores the factors of freshman year college retention by using a unique data set tracking the participation of a cohort of 1,800 students in a public state college system through 2011 from their freshman enrollment at a community college in 2006. The focus is on prevalent factors in the college retention literature, including demographics, high school characteristics, placement test scores, freshman year performance and remedial course work. The results in this paper add to the understanding of how these factors help predict freshman year retention in order to aid administrators and legislative policy makers interested in affecting college retention. The results indicate that while action can be taken to affect retention once students arrive in their freshman year, some obstacles towards retention must be addressed while the students are still in high school.