Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Davis, James E.

Committee Member

Adams, Joe T.

Committee Member

Stonecypher, Wayne

Committee Member

Wiseman, William M.

Date of Degree

12-11-2009

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Community College Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Educational Leadership

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions and performance of native and community college transfer students at a rural land grant institution. The study included students’ perceptions of the following areas: (1) academic and intellectual development; (2) faculty concern of student development and teaching; (3) social integration; (4) goal and institutional commitment; and (5) transfer students’ perceptions of their transfer process. The theoretical framework of the study was Tinto’s Longitudinal Model of Student Departure. A survey research design was employed in this investigative study to collect and analyze the data. A total of 567 Mississippi State University (MSU) students participated in the research study. An instrument entitled The Student Experience Survey was used to gather the data utilized in the research study. The researcher sought to answer 6 research questions related to participants’ perceptions and performance at MSU. To analyze the collected data both a Multivariate of Variance (MANOVA) and an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tests were used. Other statistical tests that were utilized in this research study were cross tabulations, descriptive frequencies, and Chi-Square. All results were presented in both descriptive and table forms. Among the major findings of the research study were: (a) there was a significant difference in the grade point averages (GPAs) of university native and community college transfer students, (b) there was a significant relationship between the collegiate GPAs of community college transfer students and their perceptions of specific transfer variables; and (c) there were significant differences in the students’ perceptions of the factor variables of academic and intellectual development, faculty concern for student development, social integration, and goal and institutional commitment among university native and community college transfer students.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/17061

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