College persistence and student attitudes toward financial success

College Student Journal, June, 2005 by Karen Leppel

It is an empirical question whether, on the whole, students who consider financial success very important have higher or lower discount rates than other students. Therefore, in the aggregate, it is not clear whether students who consider financial success very important are more or less likely to persist than students who consider it less important.

What about students who change institutions when they become discontented with their current school? How does a student's perspective on future financial success influence that probability? Since students frequently lose credits toward graduation when they transfer to a different school, it often takes them additional semesters to complete their degree and begin their employment. If students who value future financial success highly have high discount rates they should be less likely than other students to take such a step.

Among the background characteristics that should influence choice of major and career are student aptitudes for various types of work. When students consider other factors such as financial success but neglect to consider personal aptitudes, problems can result. Students who highly value financial success may select a major because they believe when they graduate they will earn more, rather than because of an interest in the field. If the subject is ill suited to a student's interests and aptitudes, he/she may be bored and struggle with the coursework. If the student is sufficiently discouraged, he/she may not only give up on the major but on college as well. Thus, students who highly value financial success may be more likely to drop out of college. Of all majors, those in business are most likely to feel that "being financially very well off" is very important (Green, 1992, p. 36). Green (p.41) found that while business students do not have a particularly low major-defection rate, they do have a lower overall degree completion rate than students in other fields, except for the social sciences. Green's results were based on descriptive statistics. In Leppel's (2001) least squares and logit regression analysis in which demographic characteristics of the students were held constant, female business majors were again found to be less likely to persist in college than were women in other majors. Male business majors, however, were more likely to persist, but the difference tended to be smaller.

While persistence is determined by numerous variables including academic performance, academic performance can in turn be influenced by many of the same variables. Positively related to academic performance are ability (Astin, 1993 and Leppel, 2002a), drive to achieve (Astin, 1993 and Leppel, in press), age, being Asian (for women), and being married and having children (for men) (Leppel, 2002a). Negatively related to academic performance are being black (Astin, 1993 and Leppel, 2002a), and being Asian (for men) (Leppel, 2002a). Astin (1993) and Canabal (1998) reported negative impacts of Hispanic ethnicity on academic performance, but Leppel (2002b) found no significant effect. Astin (1993) stated that full-time employment was a negative predictor of academic performance, which is consistent with a negative impact of hours worked for women (Leppel, 2002b), and a negative influence of hours of off-campus employment for seniors (Ehrenberg and Sherman, 1987). Ehrenberg and Sherman (1987), however, found a positive effect of hours of off-campus employment for juniors, and Canabal (1998) found no significant effect of hours of work per week. Women with the highest level of campus involvement had higher predicted academic performance levels, and men with the lowest level of involvement had lower predicted levels (Leppel, 2002a).