Dusting Off the Data: Using the 2007 CIRP Data to Predict First-Year Students’ Four-Year Outcomes

Abstract

In summer 2007, the majority of first-year (non-transfer) students (4,500+) completed the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) survey during Orientation sessions at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. The CIRP provides practitioners and administrators with valuable insights into college student behaviors, academic preparedness, college expectations, values and goals, motivations for attending the University, and interactions with peers and faculty. Four years later, it is time to take the data off the shelf, dust it off, and utilize this substantive source of information to examine factors predictive of first-year students’ first term/year grade point averages, ongoing retention, and four-year graduation rates. Practitioners and administrators attending this session can learn more about the factors (e.g. behaviors, goals, expectations, etc.) predicting first-year students’ retention, graduation, and grade point averages. The results of these analyses can be used to promote data-driven decision-making for the purposes of developing interventions to reach out to the students most at risk for attrition and prioritizing initiatives to enhance students’ long-term success.