Award Date

5-1-2017

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Psychology & Higher Education

First Committee Member

Vicki J. Rosser

Second Committee Member

CarolAnne Kardash

Third Committee Member

Stefani Relles

Fourth Committee Member

Helen Neill

Number of Pages

126

Abstract

The college preparedness of first-year, first-semester, undergraduate students was researched and analyzed in this study. The research entailed a purposeful selection of 10 first-year, first-semester, undergraduate student participants that transitioned into a four-year public university, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), from a Nevada public high school. Participants who graduated from a Nevada public high school were chosen because Nevada exhibits low-performing K-12 public education trends. Using qualitative methods (i.e., a phenomenological approach), students were interviewed using semi-structured and open-ended interview questions. The interviews were used to ascertain student participants’ perceptions of their academic lived experiences transitioning from high school to college. The research presents two key findings. The transition from high school to college is a dichotomous experience comprising of both self-efficacy and autonomy and emerging as positive and negative.

Keywords

College Preparedness; First-Semester; Sociocultural; Transition; Undergraduate

Disciplines

Education | Higher Education Administration

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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