Dropouts and graduates at the Rio Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico

ndergraduate student withdrawals had not been studied in the Rio Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico since 1962-63. The researcher also studied a group of graduates who belonged to the same original population as the dropouts, the regular undergraduate day program students who registered in the Rio Piedras campus of the UPR during the fall period of 1979.;Because of limitations of the student information systems of the campus it was impossible to determine the exact magnitude of the student losses. Twenty four variables were chosen to compare the permanent dropouts with all of the graduates. In addition, the permanent dropouts were compared with former and potential dropouts who did graduate on 23 other variables. Chi-square tests were performed on all the variables.;Of the variables chosen for study, those which were found to be most significantly related to dropping out permanently were: College Entrance Examination Board Verbal Score, CEEB Total (Verbal plus Math), Academic Ability, Campus First Enrolled, Year First Enrolled, Academic Index the First Semester in College, Socioeconomic Status, Father's Occupation, Family Income, Type of High School, High School Program, Type of Neighborhood from Which Most High School Students Came, Marital Status at Withdrawal, Semester at Withdrawal, Academic Index at Withdrawal, Main Source of Income at Withdrawal, Economic Problems at Withdrawal, Academic Difficulties at Withdrawal, Quality of Faculty, and Quality of Course Content. Other variables which may have also had some impact on attrition were: High School Index, Employment Status at Withdrawal and Program of Studies at Withdrawal.;Other important findings of this study were that the the student-reported factors precipitating withdrawal were mostly family system/environment related (34.5 percent) and economic (22.6 percent) and that at least 58 percent of the permanent dropouts were really stopouts who had returned to college within four years after dropping out.;Finally, four-and-a-half to five years after leaving the campus 95 percent of the graduates and 82 percent of the permanent dropouts were found to be integrated into the world of work and/or study and 18 percent more of the employed graduates than dropouts were earning over...