Improving Retention and Academic Achievement for First-Time Students at a Two-Year College

Faculty at a two-year community/technical college undertook a project in the spring 2010 semester to incorporate more intensive and intrusive academic advising into the Freshman Seminar (COL 105) course. A study was undertaken in which 14 sections of COL 105 were divided into an experimental group (taught by specially-trained instructors who served as the students' academic advisors during their first semester) and a control group (taught by regularly trained instructors who were not advising their students). Results showed that the students in the experimental group earned higher overall GPAs and were retained (reenrolled the following semester) at a higher rate than students in the control group, a phenomenon that remained true for the following year.