Colleges and universities have continued to refine their understanding of engagement, affinity, and retention. At Arizona State University (ASU), the goal has been to continually retain first-year students at a 90%+ retention rate. At ASU, two key aspects of the first-year experience have been employed to foster retention. First, ASU has grouped on-campus students so they lived in residential colleges, housing students with others in the same college, to aid retention of first-year students. Second, ASU has required first-year students to take a 101 class, an orientation to ASU resources (library, advising, etc.) and its community (student organizations, clubs, etc.). The residential college living experience has afforded students opportunities to intentionally engage in campus events, connect with other students, and develop a vision for success. The 101 class has provided students with opportunities to learn about resources and community that have enriched their first-year experiences. Together, these two key approaches have offered students pathways to building initial engagement at the institution. The current research study was conducted to examine the ways in which students became engaged during their initial semester at ASU. Student participants in this study all lived in the W. P. Carey (WPC) Residential College Community in Hassayampa Academic Village (HAV) and were enrolled in WPC 101—Student Success in Business. WPC 101 was focused on helping students navigate college and learn about campus resources.

In the study, the researcher infused three Engagement Workshops into the WPC 101 curriculum alongside pre-existing assignments to afford students learning opportunities for a richer, deeper exploration and reflection on their first-semester experience. Students participated in a pre- and post-intervention survey, contributed written narratives and reflections, and six students completed individual interviews.

Results of the study, particularly the qualitative results, indicated (a) quality of relationships, (b) ASU community, and (c) campus environment emerged as variables that served as the ‘roots of engagement’ for these first-semester students Thus, the current work extended previous research on engagement by identifying the initial developmental aspects of engagement among first-semester, university students. The discussion included detailed explanations of the results, limitations, implications for research and practice, lessons learned, and conclusions.

Factors that Contribute to a Student's College Choice Decision: College Characteristic \u2014 Geographic Location, is a review of the literature that analyzes and presents the central characteristics found within the four preexisting student college choice models. Over the past couple of decades, multiple different student college choice models have been created in order to define the process in which a student decides specifically on a college. The combined models that are analyzed within this study are: Chapman model (1981), Jackson model (1982), Hanson and Litten model (1989) and Hossler and Gallagher Model (1987). The focus on combined models in this literature review, ensures that all the models incorporate the rational assumptions seen in economic models and also analyze the components of status attainment models (Jackson, 1982). The four combined models will present various influences and factors that play a part within the student decision to overall attend college and then go on to define how a student chooses a specific college. Multiple different models analyzed within this study discuss how particular college characteristics play an ample role in the college student choice process. One of the biggest college characteristics seen within all four models, is the influence of college location on the decision making process. With location playing a vital role within the college choice decision, the factor of an institution's geographic location (in-state vs. out-of-state) will be analyzed in relation to these preexisting models.