Abstract

In this paper we will apply two types of survival analysis to retention data collected at the College of Wooster, a 4-year, private, liberal arts college. The two forms of survival analysis will be Kaplan-Meier Curve and Cox Proportional Hazard Regression. We will investigate how ten variables affect the likelihood of a student dropping out over the course of their time attending the college. Those variables are: Legacy, Varsity Athlete, First-Generation, Greek life, Visited Campus, first term grade point average, and the student's self-reported answers for likelihood of transferring out before graduating, frequency of depressed thoughts, level of concern regarding their ability to finance their college education, and their rating on whether the College of Wooster was their first, second, third, or less than third choice college. We found that of these variables first term GPA and Greek life affiliation had the greatest affect on the risk of withdrawing from the College of Wooster, with higher GPA values and participation in Greek life having higher overall survival probabilities over time.

Advisor

Morrison, Jillian

Department

Mathematics

Disciplines

Survival Analysis

Publication Date

2021

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

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