Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition

Dr. Vincent Tinto has updated his stellar earlier book, which turned out to be a classic, on why students drop out or leave college. His classic helped thousands deal with the fact that too many students drop out of college. In some colleges a full 40 percent of their Freshmen class doesn't return. The average dropout rate is 20 percent; still too high a reality. Not only have colleges wasted valuable, scarce resources but students walk away with a bruised ego and a sense of failure that may dog them all the days of their lives. Their parents are left with broken dreams and with a depleted pocketbook. Is this really necessary? No, and Tinto points out how the issue can be addressed and solved. Simple, straight forward recommendations are presented that are everso helpful and easy to follow. I was a college presient for twenty years and urged our faculty and counselors to read Tinto's earlier book. (I ordered 25 copies for the library.) This new book goes one step further and is must reading for all -- including students and their parents. Suucces is attainable.

This book is Vincent Tinto's seminal work on attrition and retention in higher education. Although Tinto has produced some more recent works published in noted academic journals, this book is a classic and is cited in many other research studies, articles, and dissertations in the field of higher academic attrition and retention. This work based on social integration of students is an expansion on his initial theory postulated in 1975 and clearly explains how his model of retention works. Although it focuses more on 4-year institutions, 2-year institutions are also included. If you are looking for germinal/seminal work especially in terms of theory and model development in the area of higher education attrition and retention, this book is a must.