Low-income students make up an increasing share of college-goers, and yet they are significantly less likely than their more privileged peers to earn a college degree. Meaningful relationships between educators and students are crucial for supporting college success, however, making these connections can be particularly difficult for low-income students in college environments that privilege middle- and upper class ways of knowing, values, traditions, norms, and language. This practice brief presents empirically based recommendations to educators seeking to build validating, affirming relationships with low-income students that lay the groundwork for their college success.

This chapter describes the formulations of the two theories, and consists of a summary of research findings pertinent to the relationship between student persistence and students' pre-college characteristics and experiences, the organizational context, students' peer environments, and students' individual experiences. Compared to residential colleges and universities, commuter institutions often lack well-defined and structured social communities for students to affiliate with and within which to establish membership. Social integration constitutes a key concept in this theory given that six antecedents shape students' degree of social integration. Proactive social adjustment entails the recognition by first-year students that they need to adjust to the social challenges of their interactions with student peers. Financial aid reduces the actual price that students must pay to attend college, especially financial aid in the form of grants that do not need to be repaid.

Since Spring 2020, college students have experienced rapid and unpredictable shifts in their social and academic worlds. As institutions implemented social distancing policies, students had to navigate unstable norms related to peer interaction while negotiating what it meant to act responsibly to ensure their own safety and help their communities. Drawing on a network-based approach to pro-social behavior, we conducted a study of undergraduate students’ frequent interaction networks at one research university during Fall 2020 to better understand how students constructed and were influenced by their peer relationship patterns. We observed a typology of student relationship patterns based on the structure and physical location of relationships. This typology had important implications for how students assessed risk and expressed care. While students engaged in different behaviors related to social distancing, they all believed they were making a concerted effort to keep their frequent contacts safe.

In this book, the authors bring together in one place essential information about college students in the US in the 21st century. Synthesizing existing research and theory, they present an introduction to studying student characteristics, college choice and enrollment patterns, institutional types and environments, student learning, persistence, and outcomes of college. Substantially revised and updated, this new edition addresses contemporary and anticipated student demographics and enrollment patterns, a wide variety of campus environments (such as residential, commuter, online, hybrid), and a range of outcomes including learning, development, and achievement. The book is organized around Alexander Astin's Inputs-Environment-Outputs (I-E-O) framework. Student demographics, college preparation, and enrollment patterns are the "inputs." Transition to college and campus environments are the substance of the "environment." The "outputs" are student development, learning, and retention/persistence/completion. The authors build on this foundation by providing relevant contemporary information and analysis of students, environments, and outcomes. They also provide strategies for readers to project forward in anticipation of higher education trends in a world where understanding "college students in the United States" is an ongoing project. By consolidating foundational and new research and theory on college students, their experiences, and college outcomes in the US, the book provides knowledge to inform policies, programs, curriculum and practice. As a starting point for those who seek a foundational understanding of the diversity of students and institutions in the US, the book includes discussion points, learning activities, and further resources for exploring the topics in each chapter.

AbstractDrawing from a longitudinal mixed methods study, this article explores how postsecondary institutions can create a campus‐wide culture of validation that can improve at‐promise student experiences and outcomes. The authors share several strategies that instructors, staff, and administrators can collaboratively enact to build a culture of ecological validation.Practical Takeaways Creating a culture of ecological validation enables postsecondary institutions to move away from siloed approaches that have been ineffective in supporting at‐promise students. Grounded in institutional norms (proactive, identity‐conscious, strengths‐oriented, holistic, developmental, collaborative and reflective), this approach enables educators to reimagine how they approach their work with students.

Our multi-institutional study addresses the question: How do college students' backgrounds, collegiate engagement, and perceptions of the campus climate relate to the development of an activist orientation? Activism is framed as engagement in collective, sociopolitical action and measured using the Activism Orientation Scale (AOS). Meaningful engagement with peers and perceiving a positive climate for contributing to a larger community supported students' propensity to engage in activism. Two key findings were inconsistent with previous scholarship. Participation in service-learning courses and the climate for perspective taking were negatively associated with activism. Findings suggest heterogeneity among civic outcomes, recognizing that some outcomes may exist in tension.