...2012 National Research Report Why Did They Enroll? The Factors Influencing College Choice An analysis of traditional-aged students What matters to students when deciding where to enroll? There are a variety of factors that influence a student’s decision to enroll. Factors such as cost and the availability of financial aid are universally important at all types of institutions. However, other factors can vary widely by institution type, demographics, class level, and whether the student enrolled at his or her top choice. Every year, hundreds of campuses administer the Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory™ (SSI) to their students. In addition to more than 70 items rated for importance and satisfaction on the general student experience, the SSI includes nine items that address factors in a student’s decision to enroll. During the fall of 2011, more than 55,000 students from more than 100 public and private fouryear and two-year institutions completed the SSI. These students rated the factors to enroll items on a scale of one (meaning not important at all) to seven (very important). This report details the responses from the nationwide pool of data. In particular, this report has a special emphasis on the nearly 22,000 first-year students who responded in order to see which items scored higher with ratings of important or very important (a ranking of six or seven on the answer scale). Comparisons with upperclass students and between students at their first-choice institution...
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...Questions 1. Why have you chosen to enroll in your curriculum? I chose to enroll in the program of Associate in Arts at the Forsyth Technical Community College and then transfer to a four year college to finish a Bachelor’s degree in psychology because it is economical. Also, because at the time I graduated from high school my English was very limited and I did not feel ready to get into a big college; I heard that at the Forsyth Tech I could improve it by taking free ESL classes while I was enroll on my curriculum or either during my vacations like I wanted to it. 2. How does your educational commitment affect your work and family? My educational commitment impacts my job by having to constantly change my schedule and reduce my working hours, for example, while I'm in school I usually have to come to work around 4:00 p.m. or 5:00 p.m. and leave at 10:00 pm during the week, I take my days off during these same days and I work the whole weekend, in this way I do not lose too many hours. It also affects my family because I cannot spend time with them often because I'm at school, working, or doing homework. 3. What special circumstances or challenges (i.e. child care, transportation, work hours) impact the ability to complete your educational requirements? (no required to answer) As a person who wants to study and has not been...
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...Personal Responsibility In today’s academic society, I believe that personal responsibility is the key to great success. The first step to this however is, we have to define personal responsibility. What does having personal responsibility mean, how do we define it in our lives? I believe being personally responsible goes hand in hand with being accountable for your actions. The follow up question for that will be; what is being “accountable”? “Much of the academic literature on accountability is rather disconnected, as many authors set out to produce their own specific definition of accountability.” (Bovens, 2010, para. 1) With accountability used so loosely in language, we have to make a decision as to its meaning. For me accountability is the definition for success. Whatever my choices are in school, I have to be responsible for them. If the decisions I make during the years I attend college are responsible and I hold myself accountable to be successful, there is no limit to what I will be able to achieve. Career Student Personal responsibility will lead to more substantive decisions in your career. I have never met anyone that their goal in life is to be a career student. That being said, some students do feel like their whole life has been spent in school. If for such a long period of time, you are in school, why would you choose to not be successful? Having personal responsibility for your decisions will help ensure that you do not truly spend your entire...
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...Reflection on Diversity I was 17 years old when my parents decide to move to Argentina. I went to this country went I was about to finish my senior in high school. Going to Argentina at that age was very difficult. I did not have friends or family there. I knew that making friends would be challenging because I did not know anyone there. I was very shy and I struggled to communicate with people even that we speak the same language the culture is totally different. I had to enroll in an ongoing high school program. At school, I felt invisible and excluded. I remembered sitting at lunch by myself. There were other groups of students sitting at the same table, but they would not talk to me or sit next to me. It was frustrating not to be able to talk to anybody or have a good understanding of what they were saying around me. I felt lonely. I wanted to go back home, but I knew that there was a reason why my parents and I were there....
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...Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) Stanford Achievement Test (This is not the College Board SAT.) PASS test (from Hewitt-standardized but not nationally normed) ???? Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) (Short but accurate; this brief test can be used for children with attention difficulties) Woodcock-Johnson (Oral interaction/evaluation in addition to written work; must be administered by qualified tester, usually a psychologist or an education professional) What Do the Scores Mean? The percentile...
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... What is College for? What is College for? There are many answers to this question. I feel college is for people that want to succeed in life. You can be in any wage bracket, depending on what you’re majoring in. For example, you can go to school to be a doctor or a registered nurse. We all know doctors make more than a RN, so a doctor is in a higher wage bracket than a RN. As a student, you have the choice to be whatever you want to be. You might be in a major you like and end up changing majors because you found a major you like better. The first school I enrolled in was Central Carolina Tech in 1995. My major was Machine Tool Technology. My job paid 80% of my tuition, as long as it dealt with the job. I applied for a job in the Tool Room, but they didn’t want to hire me. I looked at getting employment elsewhere, but needed at least 2 years experience. So, after receiving my Associates Degree in Machine Tool Technology, I enrolled a second time in an Industrial Maintenance program. After getting my Associates Degree in Industrial Maintenance, I applied for a Maintenance helper position which I received soon after. I held the position for a year and tried to get a regular Maintenance position, but they did not want to hire me. I then signed up for a Die Bench Tech position, which I held for a year. I then decided to enlist into the US Army as a Machinist to gain experience within the civilian world. After serving 5 years in the Army, I decided to go overseas...
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...1 “Why college education is important to me” Achieving Academic Excellence February 6th, 2014 The purpose of this essay is to show the importance of a college education and to provide many reasons why a college education would be important to me. I will incorporate a few quoted references along with some statistical data and my personal opinion. About twenty years ago I couldn’t give an answer to “why college is important to me”. I did enroll in a college and lasted about three semesters. I didn’t do well in many of my classes because I had poor study habits, lacked maturity, was never really focused, and just didn’t have any real motivation and goals set for myself. I never really gave it much thought. The point is I just didn’t take advantage of what college would mean to me and to my future. I wanted to enter the work force right away because I thought that I could land a good job without a college education. After fifteen years of doing different jobs and not making enough money to support a family on my own, I was finally at a crossroads. What am I going to do with my life? Do I continue to struggle? Those were really good questions. I realized that it wasn’t possible to land good jobs without better knowledge and the only way possible is to go back to school. I did some soul searching and came to the conclusion that if I am going to achieve something in this life and qualify for many positions then I must go back to college and work very hard for a degree. I did a lot...
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...Economics of a College Drop Out Research Term Paper By Eleazar Rangel 7/02/2013 South Texas College Econ 2302 Professor Oscar Plaza A. Introduction: Economics of a Dropout High cost of college and several other factors are causing the number of college dropouts to rise drastically. Understanding why this numbers are soaring is important. For example why has the rise of the cost of college nearly sextupled since 1985? Or why has the student loan debt held by Americans surpassed the $1 trillion mark? In addition to answering these questions, I will discuss the different arguments, opinions; facts regarding the toll college dropout play in this economy, and finally my final point regarding this college dropout syndrome. B. The issue: Why are students dropping out of college? This is an important topic because what factors cause students to drop out of college? According to a study from Harvard University, only 56% of students who enter college or universities graduated within a six-year period (only 29% who enter a two-year program graduate within a three year span). A main factor, according to the Harvard study, is the rising cost of the college education. Since 1985 the amount of student loan debt has surpassed the $1trillion mark and cost of a college education has sextupled. The graph below, by the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, shows the difference in price changes since 1985. As you can see in the graph college tuition and fees has drastically...
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...Canyon University Professional Dynamics NRS-430V Brittney Grabill May 2, 2015 Nursing Competencies: ADN versus BSN According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), nursing is “the largest health care profession, with 3.1 million registered nationwide.” The AACN states on their website, in 1980, 22 percent held the bachelor’s degree and 18 percent held an associate’s degree (American Associate of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2015). By the 2008, the number holding bachelor’s degree increased to 36.8 percent and the number for an associate’s degree increased to 36.1 (AACN, 2015). In the paper, I will discuss what it takes to obtain both degrees, the advantages, disadvantages and the different competencies of the Associates Degree in Nurse (ADN) and the Baccalaureate Degree Nurse (BSN). In the last few years, the hospital I have worked for has really encouraged those with an ADN degree to obtain their BSN. Representatives from different colleges have made visits to the hospital to get nurses to enroll in their ADN to BSN online programs. Our hospital, like many other across the nation, suffer from a nursing shortage. There are 2 universities within an hour in driving distance with BSN programs. Where I live, we are very fortunate to have an ADN program at our local community college, which is right across the street from the only hospital in town. When thinking about becoming a nurse, the prospective student may ask, “What is the difference between...
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...DeVry, 50 percent. Corinthian Colleges, now in bankruptcy, is trading at under a penny a share, less than one percent of its value just over a year ago. The collapse of for-profit stocks may be just the wake-up call that is needed to prompt a restructuring of the industry and of its oversight. But a telling error in Friday’s coverage of the plunge serves as a sobering reminder of just how difficult it can be to keep education entrepreneurs’ eyes on the right prize — quality and...
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...April 2014 Gap Year: The Beneficial Alternative “I thought it would be exciting to go there, and of course it was.” Alexander Sullivan was accepted into Columbia University, but instead of transitioning into the university out-right he asked to differ enrollment. Alexander, instead, decided to travel to China where he studied Mandarin, and after a while found a job as a research assistant at the Newsweek Beijing bureau and at Voice of America radio news. (Hulstrand 52). A gap year as explained by Holly Bull, the founder and president of the Center for Interim Programs (CIP), one of the first and longest running providers of gap year programs in the country, is “a period of time for students to creatively step away from the lock-step path of high school to college, to graduate school, or job” (77). Enrolling in college immediately after high school graduation is not always the right decision for seniors that are lacking motivation and unsure what to academically pursue in post secondary education. Acknowledging that not every high school senior has to continue their education without delay after high school is a concept that advisors as well as parents need to understand. They should provide possibilities for those students whom lack motivation to continue their educational paths immediately after graduation. Many high school seniors feel pressured to start college immediately after graduating because sending in college applications and applying for scholarships is all their...
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...The decision to enroll in college can be a difficult choice. Many people follow a standard time frame going from High School directly to college and utilize more idealistic means in choosing where they will go to college. Idealistic means such as where their parents went, what the campus is like or whether its academics cater to a specific lifestyle or career choice. Others, like me, must base their decision on where they attend based on more realistic means. So what makes Western Governors a more realistic choice for people like me? In order to give you a better idea of why I decided on WGU as my choice for higher education let me begin with what brought me to decide that college was important for me at all. I had barely finished High School, had moved out from my parents and lived from place to place at an early age. I had no idea what my ambitions were or what I wanted to do with my life. Instead of deciding what I wanted to do with my life I just went from day to day until life seemed to decide for me. I worked my way up through food service jobs gaining experience and credentials over the years. I even got to a point of comfort or perhaps it was better defined as a point of complacence. I had started a family and had a job that afforded the bills and the occasional luxury. What my education and current career did not afford was security and self fulfillment. Not only was I not happy working food service anymore but I was suddenly laid off and unemployed...
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...Dual credit is a process that allows high school students to enroll in college level classes to earn both high school and college credit. These classes can be very beneficial to high school students, as they get a head start in their college education. In the essay “Dual Credit in the Community College” Dr. David Lydic is uncertain about dual credit being effective and chooses to research information over the topic. “I often feel like I am in the minority in doubting dual credit, so I decided to take this opportunity to research more on the subject.” Lydic was fascinated and amusingly shocked by the information found on dual credit but still continues to doubt about it. “Why, then, am I not completely convinced?” Even though Dr. Lydic does not see much value in dual credit courses, they have proven to be a great learning experience for many high school students. The dual credit programs are a hot topic for both secondary and higher education institutions and these programs are experiencing dynamic growth. “During the 2006-07 legislative session, the Texas Legislatures even passed a law that every school district must implement a program under which students may earn the equivalent of at least 12 semester college credit hours in high school.” Therefore many colleges now accept dual credits transfers from high schools. As college tuitions continue to soar, students in high school could use dual credit to their advantage. Dual credit classes are cheaper and closer...
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... higher pay, and a desire to better myself are a few of many reasons why a college education is important to me. The goals I set for myself earlier in life did not contain a college education. Honestly, as soon as I graduated High School I was burnt out. I had no motivation to further my education. I soon entered into the Sheriff’s academy and went down the path of Law Enforcement. In the back of my mind I always knew I would be better off had I went to college first, but I never did anything about it. I always made excuses why I couldn’t pursue my degree. An excuse like it is too expensive or I don’t have the time. Recently I realized a higher education was a necessity. Not only was it a necessity but it was possible. One aspect I realized was the huge incentive other deputies were receiving for having a bachelor’s degree. In the Sheriff’s Department our contract mandates a ten percent incentive pay be awarded to those deputies who possess a bachelor’s degree. This incentive is huge and can add up to thousands of dollars every year. I realized I was dumb if I didn’t take the advantage of the huge pay raise I could receive just for going back to school. Completing my degree will instantly increase my lifetime earnings by ten percent. This will greatly impact my life my future and the future of my family. It will give me the ability to provide for my family, in a way, I never would have been able to had I not taken this opportunity. Having a bachelor degree says a lot about...
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...The College of Southern Maryland is planning on instituting the First Year Experience Program in fall of 2016. This program is a strategic maneuver that effectively explains and illustrates the academic expectations for all incoming students. In doing so, CSM will clearly define and address the expectations of college work many of their prospective students coming out of high school do not seem to comprehend. The First Year Experience also known as the Freshman Year Experience or the Freshman Seminar Program is a program at many American colleges and universities designed to help students prepare for the transition from high school to college. Furthermore, the purpose of the First Year Experience is to provide an academic experience that promotes...
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