Student Retention In College Education Essay

Superior Essays
It can be a devastating to students to experience failure of not conquering their goal. The goal of not completing a college education. Students families can be just as devastated by witnessing their loved ones go through the pain of failure. A student not being able to finish their college education is known as retention. In fact, according to the student that decides to leave a college or university in advance is defined as retention (Tinto, 2007). Retention is a problem that has plagued for years and is still an issue today. The subject of retention has been a hot topic as early since the 1930s. For example, there was a pioneer of retention known as J. B. Johnston. Johnston was the Dean of the College of Science, Literature, and Arts from …show more content…
Schools look at students traits, abilities, and motivation to complete college work in an adequate manner to fit the standards of higher education. Students that are not able or less driven to accept the benefits that college graduation was believed to bequeath upon them. Therefore, if students fail, who are the real failures? Is it the students or the schools. Many would refer to this as blaming the victim (Tinto, 2007). Over four decades many lessons have been learned by Vincent …show more content…
It still refers to students giving up on a future that they deserve. Everyone deserves the best in life such as an education and a decent future. Students generally look to others like adults people who are in a position to help them. For instance, I’m sure many young people wanted J. B. Johnston to support them desperately. But he did the exact opposite. Despite being in a position to help, he instead ignored so many students. Individuals in society today that work in higher education have the opportunity help and not hinder students chances and to make a real difference. People can be a part of the solution and not the problem of

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    College is a coupon for success. In today’s generation, one is seen to be most successful and more likely to achieve accomplishments if they have a degree; in addition, the better the degree, the more qualifications are perceived to be prosperous. The point in general is that college, itself, holds a lot of potential that affects an individual’s life tremendously, therefore students see they have the right to verdict and combat for the grade in which they consider is deserving and reasonable. In Brent Staples’ essay, “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s,” he gives reasoning for the great grade inflation that is steadily increasing.…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Are Too Many People Going to College? Charles Murray’s article “Are Too Many People Are Going to College?” explains a large point in the life of young Americans. He discuss some needs of our education system, and stated that it needs great improvement.…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article, “It’s Not About You,” columnist David Brooks of the New York Times shares his opinions on the advice presented to college students today. Brooks’ purpose is to reveal to the audience that most college students are unfairly left unprepared for society, although they have successfully completed their formal education. In order to support this reasoning, David Brooks openly addresses the irony in the advice that modern day college students receive, and emphasizes various contrasts between the advice given, and the real world. In his article, Brooks openly develops a negative attitude towards the guidance given to college students.…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to Charles Murray, when a high-school student does not continue on to college they are said to be “too dumb or too lazy” (Murray 253). Murray suggests this starts with the government and guidance counselors constantly encouraging students to go to college regardless of the career they plan on pursuing. He claims students are being pushed to go after this impractical expectation, one they may not even want to go after, and if they believe that they must chase it then they’ll push the next generation even harder and so on. Murray then conveys that the system is setting students up to fail. They paint the B.A. to be such an important factor of getting a job and being a respectable citizen, but they make it nearly impossible to…

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Not only will some students go their whole life believing no one is more intelligent than themselves, but others will not receive an education worthy of their degree. However, the author seems to understand students are not the only ones at fault. Colleges are also scrambling to change their names to appear more prestige and competitive. Nevertheless, striving to become something they are not, and working to offer unique majors, only adds the mess. Grade inflation also lightens the load on students.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Do I really need to go to college? That is the question many students ponder coming out of high school. In the essay, “Is College for Everyone”, Pharinet challenges the idea that perhaps college is only for a selected few. Whether you go to college because you genuinely want to, or because you want to appease your parents, college might not benefit you the way you think it does. Though Pharinet uses logical reasoning to support her claim such as the use of logos, ethos, pathos, and rhetorical questions, her argument is weaken because of her lack of credibility, failure to support her ideas, and bias opinions.…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Today, more and more people are being to question if attaining a degree really worth it or if it is not really needed. The primary reason of going to college is to obtain one’s dream job in the future. College is a stepping stone as it prepares one with academic knowledge in order to succeed in the future. Although, attending a college and receiving a degree does not necessarily guarantee that an individual is going to get a job right after graduation. Many students feel that college is a waste of money because they do not learn what they want to.…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I. Review of Literature The United States aims to increase the number of additional college graduates by eight million to meet future workforce demands and to maintain global competitiveness (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). To achieve this goal, requires increasing college going and college completion among marginalized groups and would be first generation college students (FGCS) (Matthews, 2014; U.S. Department of Education, 2011). Many scholars agree that in order to increase college going among this population of students, parent and family involvement is an essential component for college access programs (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2000; Dyce, Albold, & Long, 2013; Perna & Swail, 2001; Perna & Titus, 2005; Tierney & Auerbach, 2005; Tierney,…

    • 1158 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Failure can be our greatest teacher. It teaches us skills and knowledge which cannot be learned in a classroom - skills and knowledge that are not only necessary to thrive in college, but also essential to flourish our characteristics needed to become successful in life. Specifically, the most important attributes failure can teach us are determination, patience, and resilience - qualities that are vital in keeping up with the rigor of college. As stated by Perez in his article, “The lessons of failure can’t be taught in a classroom; they are experienced and reflected upon.” This means that the lessons we learn from failure are not just ordinary knowledge which we can get from anywhere else; they come within ourselves.…

    • 1446 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Several times throughout the article, Murray uses emotionally-charged words and phrases that create a sympathetic image; he notes that “We will lure large numbers of people...to try to achieve the goal and then fail. We will then stigmatize everyone who fails” (253). The image he evokes of the challenges and loss of self-confidence of not being able to succeed in college effectively establishes his argument that college is not for everyone. His goal is to make the reader feel sympathy for students who lack the skill to succeed and consider the possibility that perhaps too many people are going to college. Adding to this idea are words and phrases such as, “less fun” (239), “dispassionately” (240), “masochism” (240), “brutal” (245), “unlikely to have a job” (249), and “fail to achieve” (253).…

    • 1355 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A. Tingle, Lynne R., Jason Schoeneberger, and Bob Algozzine. " Does Grade Retention Make A Difference?. " Clearing House 85.5 (2012): 179-185. Academic Search Complete.…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While there are students who drop out and fail, the majority of students go on to graduate and prove that they have the intellectual potential to succeed. The public seem to think that many students in this millennium do not have the intellectual potential to succeed in college. Many people believe that this generation of students are lazy. This generation is anything but lazy. The students are quite motivated towards their future.…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Scholars have found that social and academic integration into an institution are of paramount importance to an individual student’s persistence at that institution. A variety of theoretical models, quantitative analyses, and qualitative investigations have focused on this phenomenon. A vast majority of these studies have utilized Tinto’s theory of college student departure. Tinto (1987) proposed that higher levels of integration into academic and social realms strengthened students’ learning and developed their commitment to staying enrolled. Strage (1999) noted that by the end of the 1980 's, researchers had reached consensus on the theroretical dimensions of retention for traditional college students.…

    • 1747 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    College is Not for Everyone Today, more people than ever are attending community colleges and universities. Often, a collegiate degree is a prerequisite to meaningful employment (Pincus, 341). There is even social pressure pushing many to attend. I feel that the university education system has many structural shortcomings, and that institutions of higher learning often do not have students ' best interests at heart.…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    It was reported by The Irish Times that “80 per cent of students in math-related courses are failing to progress beyond their first-year in college.” (O 'Brien). Additionally, the Institute of Educational Statistics estimated that “40% of attendees at a four-year college drop out before completing their degree” (Hamm). Some students who failed in college does not usually realize that they are not properly prepared for college. This can be a serious problem for the students, as they are spending more money but they are not progressing as they would have expected.…

    • 1576 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays