Plan ahead for second-year college student retention and completion

Do second-year students get the attention they need and deserve on your campus? When your next cohort of second-year students begins its second year, will your advisors and student services staff be ready to retain them with focused interventions to keep them moving toward graduation?  How will these interventions be prioritized?

I have three nieces who right now are all completing their first-year of college: one in North Carolina, one in Texas, and one in Virginia.  They all began their studies with clear majors in mind: chemical engineering, nursing, and aerospace engineering.  They have all been reasonably successful in their first-year courses, although each of them also admits that they underestimated how much more they would have to study in college than they ever did in high school (and these women worked very, very hard in high school).

With spring break over now, they returned to their campuses for the last blitz of their spring semesters—only eight weeks remain in their first years of college. What were they all talking about during their spring breaks?  Their SOPHOMORE years! In many ways, they have already turned the page and are looking ahead to next fall—registering for their courses, signing leases to live off campus, and sorting through the various components of their social lives.

At the same time I was talking with them over their spring breaks, I received 2014 data from the Second-Year Student Assessment (SYSA) which reports the “motivational status”—non-cognitive motivational variables, prioritized—of more than  5,000 sophomores from 55 institutions across the country.  As I looked at these data and tried to understand the national perspective of what seems to be going on with sophomores across the country, I couldn’t help but wonder about my “rising sophomores” and what transitions lie ahead for them as they move from their first to second years of college.

Top 10 needs  of second-year college students

In what ways do second-year students need assistance to remain motivated? Here are the “top 10” requests made by second-year college students among 25 requests that were measured in the 2014 data:

Some other striking data from 2014 sophomores:

• 73.3 percent reported they expected to study harder in the second year compared to the first year.
• 77.7 percent planned to continue with the major they have selected.
• 70.6 percent stated they have many friends and feel at home at their institution.
• 55.5 percent reported they have the financial resources they need to finish college.
• 80.7 percent intended to complete their degrees at their current institution.

These data, and my own observations of my nieces’ experiences, beg the question: who is paying attention to the sophomores? Clearly, there are specific needs they are expressing. So how are campuses responding?

Address gaps in programming for college sophomores or keep losing significant numbers of students

Recent research shows that only 29 percent of four-year private institutions, 20 percent of four-year public institutions, and 12 percent of two-year public institutions report having programs designed specifically for second-year students. Research also suggests that campuses across sectors can expect to lose an additional 16 percent to 18 percent of their students during the sophomore year.

The opportunity to attend to the specific needs of sophomores seems obvious.  Using the prioritized motivational data available from the Second-Year Student Assessment, institutional leaders can build an agenda and begin to organize resources to address the requests their sophomores are making.  The result? Institutions will gain from improved retention rates of their second-year students and students (including my nieces) will benefit from timely and focused responses to their specific needs.

What can you do to keep second-year college students on the path to completion?

For more information on addressing the needs of second-year students, or to request a sample of the motivational assessment I mentioned, please contact me at 1-800-876-1117 or email me.  Don’t wait for your second-year students to return to campus, but plan now to ensure their ongoing success.