Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

2-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Sociology

Advisor

Paul Attewell

Committee Members

Mary Clare Lennon

Jessica Halliday Hardie

Susan Dumais

Subject Categories

Educational Sociology | Higher Education

Keywords

Community college, dropout, higher education, social capital, Early Alert, multi-dimensional inequalities, young adults, tutoring

Abstract

My dissertation investigates what contributes to low community college completion rates, what college interventions may be working to support students, what are the experiences of the students, and how did the COVID-19 pandemic impact these dynamics. I am guided by the assumption that multi-dimensional inequalities including low level of social capital constitute a cumulative disadvantage for many students to be able to persist and to graduate. The dissertation includes quantitative and qualitative data types measuring inequalities outside and inside of college with two large student record data sets from one minority-serving open-access public community college and data from a student feedback survey. Across these various analyses I find that students with precarious backgrounds, weaker academic preparations, lack of support from family and friends, and lack of positive in-college interventions, and those with Early Alert flags or enrolled part-time, have the highest risks of dropping out. I further find that interventions in the first semester of college such as tutoring and positive interactions with professors are associated with an increased chance of persisting and graduating. Overall, I find that practical support in the form of intensive advising, tutoring, financial aid application help, and other forms of assistance and help-seeking skills ameliorated the negative impact of pre-college disadvantages such as low-income status and belonging to the first generation in a family to attend college. Finally, I find an association between financial struggle and lack of a social support network especially for students who discontinued. These findings support policies that would fund programs that combine academic support, on-campus work opportunities, and financial incentives to connect with advisors and tutors and steer away from restrictive practices and discouraging signals such as flagging.

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