| Susan DeAngelis
University of Arkansas
Persistence of students enrolled in graduate and professional programs: The influence of background, graduate experience, aspirations, expected earnings, and financial commitment
FINAL REPORT:
The implications of graduate and professional student attrition are felt by many--the individual, the institution, business and industry, the education system, and society as a whole. Yet, very little research has been conducted on the factors which influence the persistence of graduate and professional students. Such data could reduce graduate and professional student attrition through the development of educational programs, institutional and public policy, as well as to identify types of students for whom specific policies should be developed to encourage persistence
To address this need, a new logistic model of graduate and professional student within-year persistence based on the previous research of Andrieu (1991) was advanced and examined in this study using the 1993 National Postsecondary Aid Study (NPSAS93). This study resulted in three major accomplishments: 1) development of a basic logical model for research on within-year persistence of graduate and professional students; 2) modification and application of a statistical model for assessing various factors that may influence within-year persistence; and 3) use of the basic within-year persistence model to assess alternative approaches to measuring the impact of student financial aid on within-year persistence of graduate and professional students. The new logistic model developed in this study considered within-year persistence of graduate and professional students to be a function of student background; graduate/professiona1 experience; academic aspirations; expected earnings; and financial aid. Additionally, six alternative models for examining the impact of financial aid on within-year persistence were compared to the basic persistence model using the same student sample. The study's sample consisted of 13,399 graduate and professional students from the NPSAS-93 database.
This study found that the receipt of financial aid significantly and positively influenced the within-year persistence of graduate and professional students in the NPSAS-93 sample. Furthermore, students receiving aid packages including all three sources of aid were more likely to persist. Graduate and professional students were found to be price responsive to financial aid as well as to tuition charges and net cost, possibly indicating that long term investment is more important in promoting persistence than sticker price.
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