Who Goes Who Stays: An Assessment of the Effect of a Freshman Mentoring and Unit Registration Program on College Persistence

We present an evaluation of a freshman block registration and mentoring program at a major state university. In an effort to improve retention, the University initiated a freshman block registration and mentoring program in the fall of 1994. The program was developed to strengthen social support, which we hypothesize leads to higher rates of persistence. We present the effects of the program on retention and academic performance for successive cohorts from 1994 through 1998. Academic performance and retention rates are used as outcome measures and are related to student and university characteristics. We describe the nature of the program and the impact that it has on persistence (survival times), grades, and graduation. Our analysis uses event history models (follow back life tables and Discrete-Time Logit Models).