From Delay to Degree

Abstract

This qualitative study extends the research on postsecondary delay by examining the college experiences of six male nontraditional students from the North Texas area who purposefully postponed college education for 3 years after high school graduation to fulfill religious commitments. Unlike the majority of delayers, the participants successfully attained bachelor degrees within 4 years from their initial college enrollment. Using Bronfenbrenner and Morris’s bioecological model of human development as a conceptual framework, four main themes emerged, which students credited for their college success: (a) reestablishing academic momentum, (b) overcoming financial challenges, (c) receiving institutional support, and (d) relying on personal development from delay activities.

Keywords

postsecondary education college success delayed college enrollment qualitative methodology nontraditional students college retention

Over the past 20 years, there has been a substantial increase in postsecondary enrollment (Aud, KewalRamani, & Frohlich, 2011), yet graduation rates have not increased accordingly. For the majority of U.S. students, college degree completion continues to be an elusive accomplishment (Ginder & Kelly-Reid, 2013; Gururaj, 2011; Lauff & Ingels, 2013). One factor educational researchers have identified as having a negative effect on student graduation rates is delaying college attendance (Aud et al., 2011; Bozick & DeLuca, 2005; Horn, Cataldi, & Sikora, 2005; Niu & Tienda, 2013; Rowan-Kenyon, 2007). Bozick and DeLuca (2005) reported that delayers are 64% less likely to graduate with a 4-year degree.

Previous research has noted many reasons for circumstantial delay. For example, for some students, poor academic preparation or inadequate financial resources resulted in students having no choice but to postpone their postsecondary enrollment (Adelman, 2006; Bozick & DeLuca, 2005; Hearn, 1992; Horn et al., 2005; Kirst & Venezia, 2004). However, some students, intentionally plan their delay. Wells and Lynch (2012) found that 11% of college-bound seniors decided, in advance, to defer their postsecondary education (PSE). Other researchers noted reasons students may plan delays ranged from a change in marital status and working full-time to military service (Bozick & DeLuca, 2011). Signficantly, students selecting not to enroll immediately in college is on the rise (Niu & Tineda, 2013), but the bulk of the retention research remains focused on students who did not plan on delay (Bozick & DeLuca, 2011; Rowan-Kenyon, Bell, & Perna, 2008; Wells & Lynch, 2012). Little is known about how intentional delay affects retention.

One group of intentional delayers, seldom researched, are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In fact, there has been an increase in those opting to delay as a response to a policy change the Church made in 2012, which lowered the minimum age requirement for missionary service to 18 for men and 19 for women (Monson, 2013). Prior to the policy change, there were approximately 58,500 missionaries serving worldwide. One year later, the number exceeded 80,000 (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2013).

Although their missionary service may be up to 24 months for men and 18 months for women, the length of their postsecondary delay often becomes 2 to 3 years. Yet, these students manage to successfully graduate even though they may be susceptible to the same issues as many circumstantial delayers such as inadequate academic preparation and financial challenges. Specifically, McClendon and Chadwick (2004) found that 37% of male returned missionaries and 45% of female returned missionaries, as Latter-day Saint (LDS) populations referred to them (Condie, 1992) had successfully completed an undergraduate degree, while the national average of degree earners at the time of the study was 18%. These findings are significant especially when considering that the national averages included graduates who had enrolled on time and considering that the length of their enrollment delays fell within the time frame. Niu and Tienda (2013) found to incur the most severe penalty toward graduation.

While previous studies on this group have determined that their mission service had a positive quantifiable effect toward their academic success (Albrecht & Heaton, 1998; Chadwick, Top, & McClendon, 2010; McClendon & Chadwick, 2004), they did not explore why after delay these students persisted to graduation when other delayers do not. As a result, many researchers have issued calls for further qualitative research into the experiences of those who planned to delay their PSE (Goldrick-Rab & Han, 2011; Gururaj, 2011; Wells & Lynch, 2012). Therefore, this study addresses this need by examining the postsecondary pathway of successful LDS returned missionaries to uncover how they navigated the college experience after a delay and what factors they perceived as contributing to their degree attainment. By understanding how this subpopulation has overcome the challenges of PSE delay, this study may provide insights that will aid other delayers.

Conceptual Framework

Bronfenbrenner and Morris’s (2006) bioecological model of human development was the conceptual framework chosen to account for the complexity of factors at play in the life experience of LDS return missionaries who delayed PSE and successfully completed a bachelor’s degree. This four-component model includes: (a) process, (b) person, (c) context, and (d) time. (Figure 1 illustrates the interactions of the four defining components.)

Figure 1.

Bioecological model of human development.

At the core of the model is a subcomponent of process, which relates to the interactions people have with their environments over time that leads to development. For example, the developmental outcome of a person learning to play the piano involves the process or action of practicing piano. In other words, in terms of this study, students must take steps to successfully complete their degrees. This study is interested in how they describe their steps to achieving their academic goals.

Whereas process refers to the actions taken, person refers to how the individual reacts to the environment based on their motivation, skill, and support. For example, athletes who strive to improve in their sport may be responding to a competitive disposition or attitude, which motivates their development. Their reactions are linked to their access to resources as well as the support or discouragement they perceive they have received to develop their skills. The goal of this study is to better understand how students describe the circumstances and motivations that they perceive supported their success in spite of their delay.

The next component is context, which is composed of four interacting environments affecting an individual’s development. These elements are as follows: micro-, one’s personal and immediate environment; meso-, one’s home environment; exo-, one’s community or neighborhood environment; and macrosystems, the society at large in which the other systems interact. These embedded systems are like Russian stacking dolls, with each able to be examined individually, but better understood as a part of a larger whole. In the current study, we focused on the individual, immediate, and community influences affecting these students’ progress to degree.

The last component is, time, which refers to the actions over months and years by individuals to achieve their goals, recognizing there may be stops and starts in that progression. The current study wants to better understand how students maintained their academic momentum over time in spite of the delay.

Bronfenbrenner and Morris’ (2006) model is well suited for this research because it provides a framework to understand the multiple environmental and personal factors that shape one’s experience. It also recognizes that development is a balance between the subjective experience of individuals and the objective circumstances with which individuals interact.

Methodology

To explore the college experience of LDS returned missionaries after a delay and to understand what they perceived as contributing to their degree attainment, qualitative methods were chosen to collect and analyze data. Such methods give voice to participants allowing for a deeper understanding of their experiences (Maxwell, 2013). Creswell (2013) suggested using 3 to 15 individuals for qualitative research, thus the first author conducted six individual, semistructured interviews with only male returned missionaries. The current study focused exclusively on the male experience for two primary reasons. First, the experience of males and females might be fundamentally different. Second, the age at which men begin their mission (18 years old) was more likely to postpone their enrollment than women who begin at a later age (19 years old).

The following research questions guided the study:

How do male LDS returned missionaries describe their postsecondary experience?

What do they account for their success in attaining an undergraduate degree?

Data Collection

There were three sources of data—an online questionnaire, a single individual interview, and archival information. The target population was LDSs among the North Texas area. Texas has the fifth largest population in the nation of LDS youth and young adults (Seminaries and Institutes of Religion, 2017) but has received little attention in previous studies on this group. To avoid bias in the sampling procedures, a combination of purposeful random sampling methods and criterion sampling was used (Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2003)

There were three criteria for inclusion in this study. In addition to being male members of The Church of LDSs willing to participate in this study, they had to have graduated from high school and ultimately earned a bachelor’s degree from an accredited 4-year university within an 8-year window no later than 2012. This window was selected based on previous research (Adelman, 2006; Bozick & DeLuca, 2005; Rowan-Kenyon, 2007), which also allowed for an 8-year period of observation for students to have time to graduate within the time frame. In addition, participants had to have delayed enrolling into any postsecondary institution until after the completion of serving a full-time mission for the Church for two or more years.

Initially, the first author collected data from 179 males through the online prescreening questionnaire that requested basic demographic information, including if they had graduated from college, parental education levels, the use of financial aid, and if they were interested in participating in an individual interview. Only six individuals who participated in the survey met the sample selection criteria and agreed to be interviewed for the study. The first author used episodic interviewing techniques (Dere, Easton, Nadel, & Huston, 2008; Flick, 2000; Tulving, 2002) that asked the men in an individual interview to recollect events from their past in a time-sequenced manner rather than topically or thematically. In this way, memory is stimulated, and previous experiences are more readily recalled (Dere et al., 2008; Flick, 2000; Tulving, 2002).

All the interviews were face-to-face and took place at locations selected by the individual participant. The interview protocol explored the participants’ postsecondary pathway beginning with their high school experiences, their missionary experiences, and finally their college experiences. Examples of the protocol questions were as follows: “What role did your mission play in your college experience?” and “What were your academic experiences in college?” The interviews lasted around 60 to 100 minutes and were audio-recorded for transcription purposes. The final data source was the participants’ college transcripts. These were collected as a means of verifying college-attendance and course-load patterns.

To ensure trustworthy findings, three colleagues with backgrounds in qualitative methodology coded sections of the interviews to determine inter-rater reliability (Creswell, 2013). Another colleague, who was familiar with Bronfenbrenner’s theoretical work, reviewed the conclusions to ensure fidelity in the theoretical application. The findings represent the interpretations agreed upon through the peer reviews.

Participants

As is shown in Table 1, the age range for the six participants¹ was from 26 to 30 years. Each of them started serving a 2-year mission within a year of their high school graduation. Half of them began their PSE at a 4-year university, while the other half began at a local community college (LCC). Three graduated from Church-owned universities out of the state of Texas and three graduated from universities within Texas. All of the participants earned their bachelor’s degree in 6 years from the time of their high school graduation except Jeffrey, who took 7 years.

Table 1.

Interview Participants.

Participants	Age	High school graduation	Missionary service	College enrollment year	Initial postsecondary institution	Graduating institution	College graduation	High school graduation to college degree
Paul	30	2002	January 2003 to January 2005	2005	LCC	TU	2008	6 Years
Calvin	28	2004	January 2005 to January 2007	2007	RSU	RSU	2010	6 Years
Dave	27	2005	March 2006 to March 2008	2008	LCC	TU	2011	6 Years (Master’s)
Jeffrey	27	2005	November 2005 to November 2007	2008	LCC	RSU-B	2012	7 Years
Cory	27	2005	November 2005 to November 2007	2008	RSU	RSU	2011	6 Years
DeRon	26	2007	December 2007 to December 2009	2010	RSU-B	PTU	2013	6 Years

Note. LCC = local community college; PTU = Private Texas University; RSU = Religious Supported University; RSU-B = Religious Supported University Branch campus; TU = Texas University.

All participants delayed their enrollment into college by 3 years.

Findings

This section addresses four significant elements to these graduates’² experiences that they perceived as having a positive effect on their degree attainment: (a) reestablishing and maintaining academic momentum, (b) overcoming financial challenges, (c) receiving institutional support, and (d) relying on personal development from delay activities.

Reestablishing and Maintaining Academic Momentum

Despite having delayed college enrollment for 3 years, a period deemed most detrimental for degree attainment (Niu & Tienda, 2013), each of these participants specifically discussed the benefits they gained through their efforts to reestablish lost academic momentum by their enrollment choices. In the case of Paul, Dave, and Jeffrey, they each began their postsecondary experience by enrolling in general classes at their LCC, which served a valuable purpose in their postsecondary experience. Even though Paul did not apply to any college prior to his mission, he knew “college was the next big step in life.” Upon returning home from his missionary service, he said, “My number one focus was getting in some college classes to get that ball rolling, get that next phase of my life started, so I could finish it sooner.” Not wanting to waste time by waiting for a semester to begin or to lose “the momentum and the excitement” of coming home, Paul had his parents take him directly from the airport to LCC to sign up for classes.

Returning home from the Philippines, Jeffrey did not know exactly what he was going to do about school, but he was sure that he “needed to get school started quickly.” He immediately “took one semester at LCC” to signal to those around him that he was intent on attending college. Essentially, LCC became an academic place-holder for him until he figured out to which university he would transfer. Unfortunately, not all of his credits from LCC transferred to the religious-affiliated institution that he eventually attended. However, Jeffrey admitted that even though “it didn't help much towards the degree … in my objectives of staying in school, it was fine.”

Dave started his education at LCC as well. He learned that they would accept all of his high school AP credits, unlike the university of his choice, Texas University (TU). However, TU would accept his community college credits, so starting there helped him retain the postsecondary credits he gained in high school in addition to the money he saved in tuition costs. At his wife’s suggestion, he enrolled in core classes at LCC that were more difficult at TU, thus avoiding the perceived rigor there. For the three participants who began their postsecondary experience at the LCC, they felt enrollment at the LCC was a means to restart their academic momentum after the period of a delay. Thus, while Horn et al. (2005) found that initial enrollment in a community college was detrimental to degree attainment, for these three, it was a needed springboard to their success.

Regardless of where the men enrolled, they all credited their ongoing college attendance patterns and course loads in helping them reach graduation. After their 2-year missionary service, they all took full course loads and often took summer classes as well. As Paul reported,

I took every mini-mester there was. I took classes every summer. At the very end, I took 18 hours at [a four-year institution] and then three hours simultaneously at [community college], for 21 to finish up. I just really buckled down.

In addition, he took Saturday classes “when I could fit them in.” Similarly, Jeffrey reported, “I finished school in three years instead of four” and attributed that to averaging about 18 or 19 credits a semester. Jeffrey also benefited by testing out of 13 credits of language requirements thanks to learning a foreign language as a missionary.

Each of the participants recognized the benefits of continuous enrollment once they returned from their missions and were aggressive in maintaining full course loads. These actions helped them to continue toward graduation, which reflects the Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2006) component of engaging in proximal processes to promote personal development. Furthermore, their course-taking patterns support the findings of Adelman (2006) who said part-time attendance is hazardous to degree completion and that “continuous enrollment increases the probability of degree completion by 43 percent” (p. xxi). Each participant maintained full-time enrollment status and enrolled continuously. Thus, their time from enrollment to completion was under 6 years.

In summary, despite a 3-year delay for each of the participants of this study, they all returned home from their missions with high motivations to achieve their college aspirations. Whether they started directly at a 4-year institution or the LCC, the students were intent on reestablishing academic momentum and earning their degrees.

Overcoming Financial Challenges

For many traditional delayers, financial issues affect their college persistence (Hearn, 1992; Horn et al., 2005). According to Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2006), such environmental factors will directly affect the processes a person engages in based upon their dispositions, motivations, and perceived supports. While most of the participants had some savings that could have gone toward college expenses, each of them chose instead to finance their missionary service. Thus, when it came time for college enrollment, they were confronted with financial constraints common to delayers. Nevertheless, we found that they overcame their financial challenges without compromising their long-term success by managing their situations with financial aid, family support, and by working.

All the participants received some sort of financial aid (see Table 2). For example, when Dave transferred to the local 4-year university from community college, he was fully expecting to put his first semester at the university on a credit card with plans to pay it off as he worked. However, upon earning a 4.0, his only semester at the community college, he received an automatic scholarship once he transferred to the university.

Table 2.

Financial Aid Participants Received During Their College Enrollment.

Processes	Calvin	Cory	Dave	DeRon	Jeffrey	Paul
Grants	X	X	X	X	X
Scholarships	X	X	X	X	X	X
Student loans			X	X
Held job(s) during college	X	X	X		X	X

Financial aid information was gathered from a prescreening questionnaire.

For students who benefited from receiving financial aid, the assistance did not always cover the total cost of college. As a result, the participants took actions to help address these shortfalls. For example, even though Paul received an academic scholarship to the Religious Supported University (RSU), he declined it because housing expenses at this out-of-state school pushed it out of reach. Rather, he chose to attend the local 4-year university even though he would have to pay for it, because he “could still live at home” lowering his overall expenses.

The participants also worked to supplement any aid they received in order to cover their expenses. Jeffery had two jobs during college in Idaho, working as a car mechanic and as a janitor. Two of the participants worked on campus. Calvin first worked as a resident assistant in university housing, then as a counselor for various sports camps on campus, and then in the computer labs. Cory worked part time in the university cafeteria.

In addition to working, a few of the men received financial assistance from their families, which is not a benefit all traditional delayers enjoy (Bozick & DeLuca, 2011). This support from family reflects Bronfenbrenner and Morris’ (2006) context component. For example, upon returning from his mission, Jeffrey recalled finding out that his parents had surprised him and paid for his mission, so now he could use the money he saved for that purpose for college. Cory’s parents did not provide such a large financial boost, but they did step in and pay tuition his first semester. As he explained, “After that, it was pretty much on my own.” Still, this initial aid helped him transition to his new role as student.

In summary, because the participants used any personal savings to cover their mission expenses, they relied on some form of financial aid (e.g., scholarships, Pell grant, loans) and parental assistance during college. Gururaj (2011) found that students who worked during or after a PSE delay persist at a higher rate than those delayers who do not work. Such was the case for these graduates who worked 15 to 40 hours a week at one or two jobs to afford their education. Still, for most of these students, their delay may have drained their personal savings, but it did not keep them from graduating, which is often a primary issue for traditional delayers (Bozick & DeLuca, 2005; Wells & Lynch, 2012).

Receiving Institutional Support

Participants described how the campus contexts they encountered at their respective institutions helped, and at times, hindered their success. They discussed institutional policies and programs affecting their persistence.

Institutional policies

Enrollment, deferral, and transfer policies were perceived with varying effect by the participants.

Enrollment policies

The open enrollment nature of community colleges was beneficial to several of the students who wanted to jump right back into college upon returning from their missions. However, Jeffrey felt the LCC was not welcoming to older students. For example, because he was no longer a young high school graduate, he did not receive any kind of orientation from LCC. Jeffrey noted of his reception at LCC, “It was pretty much, ‘If you want to be here you can be here. We are fine if you’re here and we’re fine if you’re not.’”

Further, Dave felt that he was at a social disadvantage being older than traditional first-year students. In his words,

I wasn’t in that age bracket, so I didn’t have that kind of welcome. Another thing is, I didn’t have a peer group of friends that all went to college together. So, at LCC, I was one of the old people in the classes.

Therefore, the school did not have anything in place for older first-year students, which did not make these students feel welcome.

Deferral and transfer policies

Because Calvin and Cory knew they would be attending RSU after their missions, they took advantage of an academic deferment policy used by the university. The school has a process in place for students serving missions to defer enrollment until they complete their missionary service. Once they returned home, both immediately enrolled in classes without needing to reapply for admission.

For Calvin, RSU’s deferral program was a distinguishing feature over his other college choice, Private Texas University (PTU). Prior to the mission, both schools accepted him and gave him scholarships. However, he recalled that the Texas school was “unsure if his acceptance would hold after two years.” Furthermore, the admission officers at PTU said he “might have to reapply and then weren’t sure if the scholarship would hold.” Thus, RSU’s deferment process, which allowed for a prolonged delay due to missionary service, proved helpful to Calvin upon returning home. However, this policy was not available for students who wanted to remain in Texas.

Many of those students began their college careers at LCC where they had to confront common transfer challenges such as unfamiliar campus policies and credit transferability (Tobolowsky & Cox, 2012). For example, when Jeffrey and Paul transferred from LCC to their respective 4-year universities, they had credits that would not transfer. As a result, they both felt like the time and money spent on those credits were, in Jeffrey’s words, wasted.

These issues were not limited to the students who transferred from LCC to a 4-year institution. DeRon, who transferred from Religious Supported University-Branch to PTU, was initially told his credits would not all count. As a result, he found himself walking all over campus talking to multiple departmental advisors before he was able to confirm that all of his credits would count. Of the experience, DeRon said, “I had to really hound on people to make sure that [the courses] transferred but [they] did.”

In addition to issues with credit transferability, most of the students were equally unsatisfied with his advising. For instance, Dave felt ready to pursue his declared major after he transferred to TU, but there were several prerequisite courses for his major he had not taken. He recalled the advisors he met with were “really bad at explaining any solutions,” “very unhelpful,” and “useless.” Instead, Dave went “online for resources and mapped [his] own route” with the help of his “wife’s practical knowledge.”

Even though Paul recalled “being required to go meet with counselors at certain intervals” to check on his degree plan at LCC, he was frustrated by the advisors’ manner. Of the experience he said,

It almost appeared to me as if they were still trying to hold your hand like you were in high school. The way I saw it was, “I’m not a child anymore. I am paying money. I know what I am paying money for. Just let me sign in for my classes, take classes, and leave.”

Calvin expressed similar frustrations when discussing his experiences at RSU. He admitted, even though they had “a set of advisors to help you know what classes to take and what the requirements were” for each degree, he “found it faster” to design his degree plan himself. These viewpoints were common among the participants. Either the advisors were of little help or they treated them like children.

Whether a policy was effectual in aiding these men toward graduation seemed, in the end, to be centered around how accustomed the institution was at dealing with the nontraditional students and in anticipating their needs. While open enrollment polices helped to kickstart their academic momentum, they also provided limited support and left students alone to negotiate the enrollment process. In addition, deferral policies did not always align well with delays that would exceed a 2-year period. And, transfer policies were seen as obstacles to overcome rather than avenues of support.

Institutional programs

Each of the postsecondary institutions the participants enrolled in has established programs for incoming freshman. While each participant engaged in these programs to some extent, they each perceived that the majority of such programs intended for incoming freshmen did not meet their needs. Calvin summed up the participants’ attitudes about these welcome activities by stating: “I was old and just felt like I could figure it all out on my own.”

Cory lived in a freshman residence hall his first year on the RSU campus, as required. However, he thought that rule was not ideal for students in his circumstances, stating “I found out quickly that I was already older. It was kind of a weird experience.” Noting the 3-year age difference between them, Cory described the younger freshman as “all very goofy.”

Despite the awkwardness Cory felt with his living arrangements, he did feel that a program called, Freshman Academy, was beneficial. This program put all of the freshman class together in a cohort. Cory felt it was helpful because “about once a week or so, we would come together and discuss our classes and what we had been doing. We were able to kind of help each other out.” In other words, this institutional program provided him with both academic and social support.

In summary, even though RSU and Religious Supported University-Branch were better prepared for and equipped to deal with the challenges of receiving delaying returned missionaries, each of the participants, regardless of their institution, found that many of the incoming programs and policies are designed for traditional freshmen cohorts made up of recent high school graduates, making the transition to college more challenging for them. With orientations seemingly geared to traditional-aged students rather than those who may be older, independent, married, or with children, the unique needs of nontraditional and traditional delayers may not be met at many postsecondary institutions.

Relying on Personal Development From Delay Activities

The final theme to emerge from the data was the impact the participants perceived their missionary service, the cause of their PSE delay, had on their eventual degree attainment. Each felt what they learned as missionaries had a direct impact on their college success and drew upon their experiences throughout their college enrollment. Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2006) discuss how processes, such as skills (i.e., knowledge, talents, and abilities a person has at his or her command) and attributes (i.e., developed personal characteristics), are affected based upon passage of time and exposure to various contexts. Developed skills and attributes are then used by individuals in new contexts and processes to gain further development.

The participants identified a number of perceived skills and attributes developed as missionaries that directly affected their college experiences and eventual success. These included the following: critical thinking and time management skills, study and lifelong learning skills, determination and perseverance, leadership and communication skills, and maturity and perspective on life.

Critical thinking and time management skills

The participants felt they learned to plan and set goals through their mission experience. In doing so, they learned to problem solve and critically think about the best course of action to take to achieve their goals and overcome obstacles once they got to college. Dave explained how his critical thinking was developed:

There was no one really to go to [on the mission]. If I had a big problem with [something], you had to figure stuff out on your own. There was no one to babysit you, no one to tell you [what to do], no one to help you figure it out. It was almost like a great internship program for professional skills.

Paul said, “Making those decisions really helped me grow and be an adult about the decisions I would be faced with later on in college.” Cory explained that his planning skills “carried over into college life,” which helped him not feel “overwhelmed” with the demands of his college schedule. He continued, “The thing that really helped me was learning how to organize my time better and how to spend my time better.”

Because missionaries have daily responsibilities to set goals, plan their days, and manage their schedules, the men developed key skills that were directly transferable to their college experience. Thus, the goal-oriented mindset of a returned missionary is well suited for a college setting where success is determined by the completion of classes, semesters, and years.

Study skills

Participants detailed how they were required to spend a minimum of 2 hours every morning studying their scriptures, missionary lessons, and in some cases, foreign languages during their 2-year service experiences. In doing so, they developed both their love of learning and their capacity to study. DeRon admitted, “I did not even remotely know what studying was before my mission.” Thus, he felt that his developed studies skills were “first and foremost” the most important factor in his school success. Several other participants also found that they honed their study skills on the mission, which gave them an edge in college.

While most of the participants felt their study skills improved because of their mission experiences, Dave, who was a dedicated student before his mission, was worried he would “lose [his] study, test-taking soft skills.” Consequently, it surprised him how well he had “reintegrated into the study atmosphere of college.” Thus, the students gained or maintained strong study skills during their mission experiences that helped them once they got to college.

Determination and perseverance

In addition to the above concrete skills, the men also learned valuable soft skills that helped them succeed in college. Missionary work was difficult for the participants because of the constant rejection they faced. However, each expressed that enduring failure strengthened their character, which served them well in college. Dave reflected,

I wouldn't give up on obstacles [in college] because I had persistence to overcome them in a foreign country [on my mission]. When I came back and went to college, it was pretty easy to do; I've done it before.

Similarly, DeRon said that his classmates commended him for “being a determined guy” in the face of rejection or failure on an assignment or project. He agreed saying, “I'm very diligent. I think a lot of that translated from my mission. I wasn’t afraid to go knock on doors, be rejected, and do it over and over and over again.”

Jeffrey recalled his college roommates marveling at everything he was able to accomplish throughout a day. He credited his overall work ethic and persistence to the development he gained from his missionary service: “To finish [college] you’ve just got to work through it. I think that is a lot of what a mission can [teach you].”

Regardless of where they went to school, the participants described their college experience in terms of persevering or enduring to the end. Several of them felt that the demands of college were manageable because of what they had to overcome as missionaries.

Leadership and communication skills

Participants felt missionary service developed their leadership skills. Dave explained:

When it came time to do group projects at [TU], I naturally evolved as a leader in those settings because I could manage 16 people without a problem. I could organize small groups based off of my experience being a leader on the mission.

Dave also highlighted the fact that on a mission, at times, connecting with other missionaries does not “work out; where people are banging heads.” From those situations, he gained “relevant experience of how to overcome interpersonal differences.” Thus, when problems or conflict happened at school, he was able to “resolve the conflict because [he] had done it before.”

In addition, each participant spoke about how their mission-developed communication skills proved invaluable once they got to college. Paul said, “Being able to practice [talking to people] every day for two years, I think that really helped me in college be able to approach people in class.” Because missionaries talk to people all day long, these men felt that helped them overcome shyness and become confident communicators.

Maturity and perspective on life

These men believed their mission experience gave them a maturity that helped them when they got to college. As Cory explained, “I think the biggest thing was my maturity level changed. I think that had I started college immediately, I wouldn't have been as ready for it.” Paul felt his maturity resulted from developing a more selfless attitude. He explained that the all-consuming nature of the mission meant that he “wasn't focusing on myself.” Calvin explained more specifically that the mission expanded his understanding of the world because he witnessed things he had never been exposed to before. He shared,

You go out in the world and you see people with a lot less than you or with a lot harder situations than you deal with and just struggling with addiction, struggling with all kinds of things …. I just think it really helped me mature and grow up in a way that I couldn’t have experienced any other way.

The participants perceived a valuable connection between their missionary experience and a maturity they gained, which affected them as students.

For these students, even though they confronted similar financial concerns as traditional transfer students, the choice to delay in favor of missionary service did not hinder their college completion. Rather, based upon their perceptions, the skills and attributes they developed or enhanced through their service propelled them to degree attainment.

Limitations and Implications

Many researchers have laid the groundwork on postsecondary delay over time (Adelman, 2006; Bozick & DeLuca, 2005, 2011; Goldrick-Rab & Han, 2011; Gururaj, 2011; Horn et al., 2005; Rowan-Kenyon, 2007; Wells & Lynch, 2012). Many of these studies have issued calls for further work into the rationale and experiences of intentional PSE delayers. This study begins to address this research gap. However, it is not without limitations. This study examined the postsecondary pathway of only six male LDS returned missionaries from Texas. The stories of other LDS males or females may be very different from these participants. Furthermore, because this study is limited to the experiences of LDS participants, it does not present the experiences of other delayers who plan their postponement of college for religious or other reasons. Regardless of these limitations, this study provides a unique contribution to our understanding of how delays can benefit students and what institutions need to know to help these students on their educational journeys. It begins to reveal how PSE delays need not lead to a student’s college attrition. It can allow them time to gain valuable skills that help them succeed.

Unlike other delayers, these participants graduated college within 7 years of high school graduation in spite of a 3-year gap between completing high school and starting college. Rather than losing either their motivation or academic momentum, each could effectively use their time and manage their resources in a way that overcame the traditional pitfalls of many other nontraditional students. Because the skills and attributes these six participants detailed learning from a mission are not exclusive to LDS missionary service, the study’s findings suggest implications for policy, practice, theory, and research that might address the circumstances of other delayers, so they can gain similar benefits.

Implications for Policy

The total length of college delay for students involved with this study was 3 years. Very few schools’ deferral and scholarship policies could accommodate them because it is common for institutions to revoke admissions decisions if students choose to delay enrollment. Yet, these students returned home and finished their degrees in less than 4 years from the time of their enrollment. As previous studies on LDSs showed (Chadwick et al., 2010; McClendon & Chadwick, 2004), LDS return missionaries are much more successful than even the average traditional student. Their positive outcomes hold policy implications for deferred enrollment policies or scholarship programs that colleges or universities may have in place. The admission policies at the RSUs accommodated any academically strong student who needed to take an extended delay, which benefited the students and the institutions.

As was shown by the participants in this study, the processes engaged during their delay were fundamental in producing the developmental outcomes they credited as being the causes of their success in attaining a degree. Therefore, policy makers and school administers should look to support programs designed to instill similar attributes and skills to incoming students, such as AVID and Upward Bound, which are precollege programs for disadvantaged students to gain college-readiness skills. They should also consider policies that encourage students to participate in community internships, service organizations, or gap year activities that may yield similar developmental outcomes.

Implications for Practice

For students who do not have developmental opportunities away from a college environment, universities may consider how their campus programs provide growth opportunities to their students beyond classroom learning. Successful navigation to degree attainment is more than acquiring the necessary knowledge to earn a degree; it also involves developing and using professional skill sets that will benefit students’ success beyond the classroom.

When the participants in this study returned to school, they were doing so as first-year college students, yet their age and experiences were beyond that of incoming high school graduates. Thus, they all felt old, weird, or out of place with the traditional freshman. Certainly, LDS returned missionaries are not the only type of delaying or nontraditional students that are starting out in college. Yet, colleges most often deal with their students in broad cohorts. This practice may work well for all of those who have just graduated from high school, but clearly, the participants in this study felt it did not address their needs. However, practices or programs, such as cohorts specifically geared toward nontraditional first-year students, provided valuable support when available. In addition, institutional support of student groups, cultural centers, and other similar student-focused organizations on campus can provide emotional and social support needed to push all students toward graduation.

Academic advising seemed to be another practice the participants in this study felt could improve. Each of them mentioned that they determined their degree path virtually on their own. Any interaction they had with college advisors were for confirmatory purposes. Because advising is so critical to student success, institutions, colleges, and departments should ensure that advisors are trained to assist students following nontraditional paths as well as traditional ones. Further, sometimes students had to walk from office to office to make sure that their credits transferred. Clear guidelines about the transferability of coursework are necessary so advisors across campus will be equally well informed to assist students. In addition, adequate academic guides and other resources should be available online for those students who are self-navigating to have access to relevant information to help them toward completion.

It is also important to consider the K-12 implications of this research. While there is a strong emphasis placed upon college readiness in K-12, as there should be, it is helpful to see that intentional delay choices may not be as detrimental as the statistics might suggest. School teachers, counselors, and administrators may consider their messages about immediate college attendance in light of these findings and look for ways that support delay activities that further prepare and develop students’ skills and attributes that lead to success in college.

Implications for Theory

As far as can be determined, this is the first time research has used Bronfenbrenner and Morris’s (2006) model to explain postsecondary delay. As has been shown, the model is a good fit for understanding the interplay of person, processes, context, and time that shaped the six participants’ choices and actions, with their attendant outcomes. Whereas the majority of studies that have relied upon this theoretical model have been quantitative in nature (e.g., Krebs, 2009; Tudge, Mokrova, Hatfield, & Karnik, 2009), this study demonstrates that qualitative research practices are also well suited for the model’s use.

Recommendations for Future Research

As the findings of this study attest, LDS delayers perceived a multitude of experiences assisting them toward degree completion. However, it is difficult to ascertain the degree to which the various actions participants experienced during their delay directly affected their success. It is also difficult to gauge how any perceived positive factors, such as social supports, offset negative factors, such as financial or academic challenges. Researchers need to conduct empirical studies in order to understand these delineating questions further in order better understand college delay and retention.

There are many other areas ripe for research on LDS students. For example, future studies should be conducted on LDS students who delayed but failed to attain a college degree. In addition, studies that explore the differences between initial delay and those LDS students (and others) who choose to begin college and then serve their mission would help determine the effects of the timing of the delay, which might have relevance for other students who choose to delay at different points in their collegiate journeys. Finally, future research should explore other groups who also intentionally delay their college enrollment, such as military servicemen and women or those who serve in the Peace Corps, to better understand their college experience as well and the factors that contribute to or hinder their retention.

Conclusion

At the outset of this study, we understood that delaying PSE comes with significant risks. We also understood that LDS returned missionaries, who delayed their PSE, have been able to avert those negative consequences and instead have earned degrees at higher than average rates. How they have been successful despite delays was yet unclear. Bronfenbrenner and Morris’s bioecological model of human development, which served as the theoretical lens for this study, provided a meaningful way of examining the data and explaining this study’s findings. As a result, this research has been the first of its kind in subpopulation studied, in the methodological approach, and in the application of the conceptual framework.

Specifically, this research shared the college experiences of six male LDS returned missionaries and demonstrated the developmental outcomes resulting from their delay, coupled with their purposeful actions, and institutional interactions that contributed to their abilities to overcome the challenges of earning a degree. As a result, this study begins to tell the story of how delays do not necessarily need to result in unrealized aspirations. Instead, delays can prove beneficial to students who use the time to acquire skills that will help them throughout their college experience. Further, as was the case for these nontraditional students, their success was also aided, and in some ways hindered, by the policies and programs of their chosen institutions. Thus, the better institutional policy makers understand the challenges and advantages of college delay, the better equipped they can be at assisting the growing number of nontraditional students from delayed enrollment to degree attainment.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

Author Biographies

Jared A. Jepson is a visiting instructor at Brigham Young University and adjunct online instructor at Brigham Young University-Idaho. He received his PhD from the University of Texas at Arlington in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. His research interests focus on the risks and rewards of college delay.

Barbara F. Tobolowsky is an associate professor and received her PhD from UCLA in Higher Education and Organizational Change in 2001. Her research focuses on students’ college transitions and popular media representations of higher education. Most recently, she coedited the book, Anti-Intellectual Representations of American Colleges and Universities: Fictional Higher Education (2017) with Pauline Reynolds and co-wrote, On the Fast Track: Understanding the Opportunities and Challenges of Dual Credit (2016) with Dr. Taryn Allen.

References

Adelman

(2006) The toolbox revisited: Paths to degree completion from high school through college, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.

Albrecht, S. L., & Heaton, T. B. (1998). Secularization, higher education, and religiosity. In J. T. Duke (Ed.), Latter-day Saint social life: Social research on the LDS Church and its members (pp. 293–314). Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.

Aud

KewalRamani

Frohlich

(2011) America’s youth: Transitions to adulthood (NCES 2012-026), Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Bozick

DeLuca

(2005) Better late than never? Delayed enrollment in the high school to college transition. Social Forces 84(1): 531–554.

Bozick

DeLuca

(2011) Not making the transition to college: School, work, and opportunities in the lives of American youth. Social Science Research 40(4): 1249–1262.

Bronfenbrenner

Morris

P. A.

(2006) The bioecological model of human development. In: Lerner

R. M.

Damon

(eds) Handbook of child psychology, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, pp. 793–828.

Chadwick, B. A., Top, B. L., & McClendon, R. J. (2010). Education. In B. A. Chadwick, B. L. Top & R. J. McClendon (Eds.), Shield of faith: The power of religion in the lives of LDS youth and young adults (pp. 120–160). Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.

Condie, S. J. (1992). Missionary, missionary life. In D. H. Ludlow (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mormonism. Retrieved from http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Missionary,_Missionary_Life.

Creswell

J. W.

(2013) Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

10.

Dere, E., Easton, A., Nadel, L., & Huston, J. P. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of episodic memory (Vol. 18). Oxford, England: Elsevier.

11.

Flick

(2000) Episodic interviewing. In: Bauer

M. W.

Gaskell

(eds) Qualitative researcing with text, image and sound, London, England: Sage, pp. 75–92.

12.

Gall

M. D.

Gall

J. P.

Borg

W. R.

(2003) Educational research: An introducation, 7th ed. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

13.

Ginder, S. A., & Kelly-Reid, J. E. (2013). Enrollment in postsecondary institutions, Fall 2012; Financial Statistics, Fiscal Year 2012; Graduation Rates, Selected Cohorts, 2004-2009; and Employees in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2012: First Look (Provisional Data). Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch.

14.

Goldrick-Rab

Han

S. W.

(2011) Accounting for socioeconomic differences in delaying the transition to college. The Review of Higher Education 34(3): 423–445.

15.

Gururaj

S. V.

(2011) Postsecondary enrollment delay and associated persistence outcomes (Doctoral dissertation), Austin, TX: The University of Texas at Austin.

16.

Hearn

J. C.

(1992) Emerging variations in postsecondary attendance patterns: An investigation of part-time delayed, and nondegree enrollment. Research in Higher Education 33: 657–687.

17.

Horn

Cataldi

E. F.

Sikora

(2005) Waiting to attend college: Undergraduates who delay their postsecondary enrollment (NCES 2005–152), Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

18.

Kirst

M. W.

Venezia

(2004) From high school to college: Improving opportunities for success in postsecondary education, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

19.

Krebs

R. J.

(2009) Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory of human development and the process of development of sports talent. International Journal of Sport Psychology 40(1): 108.

20.

Lauff

Ingels

S. J.

(2013) Education longitudinal study of 2002 (ELS:2002): A first look at the 2002 high school sophomores 10 years later (NCES 2014-363), Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch.

21.

Maxwell

J. A.

(2013) Qualitative research design: An interactive approach, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Press.

22.

McClendon

R. J.

Chadwick

(2004) Latter-day Saint returned missionaries in the United States: A survey on religious activity and post-mission adjustment. BYU Studies 43(2): 131–157.

23.

Monson

(2013) Welcome to conference. Ensign 43(11): 4–5.

24.

Niu

Tienda

(2013) Delayed enrollment and college plans: Is there a postponement penalty? Journal of Higher Education 84(1): 1–25.

25.

Rowan-Kenyon

H. T.

(2007) Predictors of delayed college enrollment and the impact of socioeconomic status. The Journal of Higher Education 83(5): 188–214.

26.

Rowan-Kenyon

H. T.

Bell

A. D.

Perna

L. W.

(2008) Contextual influences on parental involvement in college going: Variations by socioeconomic class. The Journal of Higher Education 79(5): 564–586.

27.

Seminaries and Institutes of Religion (2017) Annual report for 2017, Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.Retrieved from https://si.ldschurch.org/Documentation/Annual_Report_for_2017_(02-Report–8x11_format_for_web)(3).213.pdf.

28.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (2013, October 3). Thousands more Mormons choose missionary service. Retrieved from http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/thousands-more-mormons-choose-missionary-service.

29.

Tobolowsky

B. F.

Cox

B. E.

(2012) Rationalizing neglect: An institutional response to transfer students. The Journal of Higher Education 83(3): 389–410.

30.

Tudge

J. R.

Mokrova

Hatfield

B. E.

Karnik

R. B.

(2009) Uses and misuses of Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory of human development. Journal of Family Theory & Review 1(4): 198–210.

31.

Tulving

(2002) Episodic memory: From mind to brain. Annual Review of Psychology 53(1): 1–25.

32.

Wells

R. S.

Lynch

C. M.

(2012) Delayed college entry and the socioeconomic gap: Examining the roles of student plans, family income, parental education and parental occupation. The Journal of Higher Education 83(5): 671–694.