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Article Excerpt
Parents, friends, high school teachers and guidance counselors, college professors and academic advisors, college orientation programs, and first-year seminars play a role in facilitating students' transition from high school to college. This paper assesses the frequency of activities linked to the transition process and how helpful these behaviors are for students at a medium-sized state university in the Southeast. Mothers provide the greatest number of helping behaviors and are the most helpful resource in the transition process. There are extensive gender and racial differences in the students' perception of helpfulness and the reported number of times students receive help. Even though students believe they receive a lot of help from or rate helpful certain factors, the perceived degree of helpfulness may not be reflected in their GPAs.
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The higher education literature is replete with studies about the transition to college (Goldrick-Rab, Carter, & Wagner, 2007, p. 2445) but more research is needed regarding the transition process (Locks, Hurtado, Bowman, & Oseguera, 2008, p. 257) because scholars have neglected to study, among other important topics, how students perceive the factors that influence their transition experience (Clark, 2005, p. 296). Weidman (1989) recognizes the role precollege and college factors play in the socialization experience of college students. Impact models, such as Weidman's (1989) model of undergraduate socialization, focus on social structure and study the influence of institutional characteristics, student experiences, and student interactions on the transition experience (see Feldman & Newcomb, 1969; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; Hurtado, 2007).
First-generation students are at greater risk for a difficult transition from high school to college (Pascarella et al., 2004; Pike & Kuh, 2005; Ishitani, 2006) and students who are academically and socially involved experience a smoother transition to college and are more likely to return for their sophomore year (Tinto, 1998, p. 169). This transition is further enhanced when there is collaborative programming between secondary and postsecondary institutions (Karp & Hughes, 2008) and by the type of college-linking strategy used by high schools (Hill, 2008). While academic intensity and the quality of one's high school curriculum are crucial for academic success and making a smooth transition to college (Adelman, 2002), other factors such as parents, friends, high school teachers and guidance counselors, college professors, academic advisors, college orientation programs, and first-year seminars facilitate students' transition from high school to college (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2000; Tierney, Corwin, & Colyar, 2005; Kelly, Kendrick, Newgent, & Lucas, 2007; Saunders & Serna, 2004; Hossler, Schmit, & Vesper, 1999; Attinasi, 1989; Hurtado, Carter, & Spuler, 1996).
Hurtado, Carter, and Spuler (1996, p. 153) found that peer support was an important factor in making the transition to college, although they acknowledged that some of this support might produce negative outcomes such as the lack of good study habits. Cabrera and La Nasa (2000, p. 7) and Hossler, Schmit, and Vesper (1999, p. 27) identify parental encouragement as the strongest factor predicting students' planning for college. Hurtado, Carter, and Spuler (1996, p. 153) found that college academic advisors were important factors in facilitating students' transition to college, while Kelly, Kendrick, Newgent, and Lucas (2007) indicate that fifty percent of the students they studied did not receive any help from their high school guidance counselors regarding college.
Pascarella (2005, p. 132) concludes that during the first year of college, students' "interactions with peers can have a significant influence on first-year intellectual growth." Social support networks are important factors in helping students cope with the transition to college (Kenny & Stryker, 1996; Hays & Oxley, 1986; Phinney & Haas, 2003). Kenny and Stryker (1996, p. 655) conclude that white students relied more on college peers while minority students depended more on family for social support. Hays and Oxley (1986, p. 311) discovered that during the first year of college the social networks of freshmen who lived in residence halls and those who lived at home with their parents became more similar. As the year progressed, students who lived at home added students to their network thus reducing the supportive role of relatives.
Counselors, admission representatives, teachers, and family members assist students in the transition process. Kim and Schneider (2005, p. 1181) reveal that parental support, which is viewed as a form of social capital, eases the transition to college. Students' social relationships with their parents and others result in a series of obligations and expectations or social norms which influence their attitudes and behaviors about college (Bourdieu, 1986; Coleman, 1988).
Keup and Barefoot (2005, p. 38) confirm that participation in first-year seminars produces positive effects for most students which make for a smoother transition, while Saunders and Serna (2004, p. 160) acknowledge the benefits that accrue to students who participate in college access programs. Kelly, Kendrick, Newgent, and Lucas (2007, p. 1032) advocate that transitional programs begin while students are in high school so they have time to develop study, time management, and coping skills that are necessary for college success, particularly during the first year.
Based on Clark's (2005) concern about the lack of research on student perceptions about the factors that influence their transition experience, this paper attempts to answer the following questions: (1) How helpful are, based on students' perceptions and experiences, certain individuals, orientation programs, and the first-year seminar in the transition experience of students from high school to college? and (2) What specifically, based on students' perceptions and experiences, do certain individuals, orientation programs, and the first-year seminar do to facilitate the transition experience of students from high school to college?
Methods
We studied students at a medium-sized state institution in the Southeast which is a Carnegie doctoral-research university with an enrollment of approximately 17,750 (15,500 of whom are undergraduates). Incoming first-year students in the fall semester of 2007 had an average SAT score of 1108. A survey was administered in class during the first week of the 2008 spring semester to students enrolled in eight sections of Introduction to Sociology....
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