Pre-college profiles of first year students: A typology

Students can be classified into various types according to their general characteristics and traits. Typologies of students are useful to provide a better understanding of students' behavior to assist an institution in the development of programs to maximize students' experiences and achievements. This study used a typological schema to differentiate 315 freshmen at the time of entry into the American Degree Transfer Program (ADP). Data were collected over three semesters using the Cooperative Institutional Research Freshmen Survey (CIRP), developed by the University of California, on students during their first day of the orientation week. Data reduction was done by exploratory factor analysis and K-means cluster analysis was used to obtain categorical typology of students. We identified seven distinctive and meaningful students' types, namely Leaders, Status Strivers, Scholars, Undecided, Uncommitted, Artists and Social Activists. The Uncommitted and Undecided represented the largest subgroups of freshmen standing at 28% and 25% respectively. Uncommitted students scored negatively on all variables pertaining to career success, self-confidence, social concern, academic matters and artistic abilities. Undecided students reported their choice of the ADP was largely influenced by their parents, school teachers and school counselors. The findings of this study can be leveraged to academic interventions and special guidance to specific at-risk subgroups so as to produce positive outcomes at the exit point. It can also inform institutional marketing to focus on those people who play a significant role in a student's choice of a university. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.