Leaving General College: Interests and Issues Related to Student Departure

Abstract

Many of the freshmen who begin postsecondary education at the University of Minnesota General College (GC) leave before they complete degrees. The purpose of this study was to describe the patterns of achievement, academic interests, reasons for leaving, and plans after leaving for a cohort of GC leavers. Advising files, the U of M student database, and the General College Student Inventory (GCSI) were used as sources of information. Half of the leavers were found to have academic performance issues. Leavers expressed a wide variety of academic interests on the GCSI, the most common being business and social sciences. There was some evidence to suggest that students with interests in physical science and computer science were more likely to leave, which warrants future investigation. Information in advising files suggested that about 25% of the leavers intended to transfer to another college. Issues that may have been related to leaving that were mentioned most frequently in the files were lack of motivation, physical and mental health concerns, financial problems, and conflicts between family or cultural expectations and the demands of college.