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PBA Home > Institutional Research & Analysis > Surveys > Client-Requested > Withdrawing Student Survey Withdrawing Student Survey, Fall 1992 - Spring 1998
Almost one-third of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s undergraduates leave the university without graduating. About 95% simply end their enrollment between terms. Another 5%, or 200-300 per year, withdraw during mid-semester (from the fourth to the last week of classes) through a formal process in the registrar’s office. Formal withdrawal during mid-semester entitles these students to the return of their $200 enrollment deposits and some portion of tuition for the semester, depending on the date of withdrawal. Students who have withdrawn must reapply for admission before returning. From Fall 1992 through Spring 1998, students formally withdrawing during mid-semester completed a questionnaire as part of the process. Here, we report results from these questionnaires and from analysis of student records. Formal mid-semester withdrawal is an unplanned, rare event. No student would plan to register, pay tuition, and then withdraw, and only 5% of undergraduates who don’t graduate do so. These are students in turmoil, who cite an average of three different types of reasons for leaving. Personal or academic adjustment factors (cited by 77%) and health or family issues (cited by 53%) are the two types cited most frequently. Reasons cited by residents and nonresidents, low and high income students, students of different class levels, and students of different racial and ethnic groups are very similar, and remained stable over the period 1992-1998. Most students formally withdrawing at mid-semester are not generally disenchanted with CU-Boulder. Over half say they definitely intend to return. Only 18% say they definitely will not return. In fact, one-third of both the "definitely yes" and "definitely no" groups, plus one-third of an "undecided" group, do return. The lack of any relationship between their stated intentions and later behavior again points to the tumultuous nature of events surrounding the withdrawal decision. In fact, some students who formally withdraw do so as their first step in the Time Out Program. This program allows students to take a leave of absence from the university and to return without needing to reapply and without any negative consequences to their class standing. We do not know what proportion of all students who formally withdraw are on the TOP; however, 38% of formally-withdrawn students who return to CU-Boulder (or, 13% of all formally-withdrawn students) were on the TOP. White, Hispanic/Latino, and especially Asian American withdrawers are more likely to return than African American and Native American withdrawers. Students who do not re-enroll are more likely to have cited as reasons for withdrawal the impersonal nature of CU-Boulder, concerns about their own readiness for college or academic performance, and the unavailability of a particular program. - Implications for University actions With one-third of students who formally withdraw during mid-semester return, including one-third of those who say they will not return, withdrawing students should not be considered a lost cause. Following up with these students a few weeks or months after withdrawal might yield more returners and be appreciated by the students and their families. Students who formally withdraw during mid-semester should not be regarded as representative of students who simply do not continue their enrollment until graduation. Decisions to withdraw during mid-semester appear to be quite emotional, prompted by many factors acting together, not due to one event or one university action or policy. Given this, and given the small proportion of students who withdraw, using the results reported here to guide changes in programs for undergraduates would be mistaken. By joint decision of the Registrar and the Office of Planning, Budget and Analysis, students formally withdrawing are no longer asked to complete a questionnaire about their reasons. This helps streamline the process for the students. In our opinion, the value of the information collected is not worth reinstituting the questionnaire. The population was all undergraduate students who formally withdrew during mid-semester from the University of Colorado at Boulder from Fall 1992 through Spring 1998. The Withdrawing Student Survey, a 2-page multiple-choice questionnaire, was administered only to those students who formally withdrew during mid-semester--1,632 students--during this time period. This group probably represents almost 100% of students who went through the voluntary formal withdrawal process--a process that must be completed if the student wishes to receive a refund of any tuition and fees paid for that semester. Though surveys were sometimes collected from students who withdrew prior to each semester’s census date, those responses are not included in the 1,632 analyzed here. We estimate that 3% of the total group (N=49) were graduate students at the time of withdrawal, and that the remaining 1,583 were undergraduates. All 1,632 students are included in these analyses. Students do not have to complete voluntary formal withdrawal (VFW) to leave the university. Some students who don’t intend to pursue refunds of tuition or enrollment deposit may simply leave in the middle of a semester. Others may complete a semester and then leave the university without completing a formal process. In fact, we estimate that 94-96% of all undergraduates who leave CU-Boulder without graduating do so without going through the VFW process. Because most students leave the university without completing the survey, it is important to interpret these results with great caution. While we are confident that the responses characterize undergraduate students who leave mid-semester through the voluntary formal withdrawal process, we suspect that they do not capture reasons for leaving CU-Boulder, in general. The questionnaire was administered to students who came to the CU-Boulder Registrar's office to complete the voluntary formal withdrawal process. Their responses were confidential but not anonymous. Completed surveys were forwarded to Planning, Budget, & Analysis. The questionnaire was designed in the early 1980s by Aggie Madden of Retention Services, and later revised by Student Affairs Research Services (now part of Planning, Budget, and Analysis). Some demographic information, including identification, was requested. Students gave "yes/no" responses to items listing possible reasons for withdrawing. The items cover personal, financial, academic and university-based issues. The questionnaire also offered students the opportunity to write, in their own words, a description of why they were leaving CU-Boulder. Twenty-eight possible reasons for withdrawing are presented on the questionnaire. In order to simplify the analysis and presentation of student’s motivations, we combined individual items into nine categories, or scales, with one to six items each. These scales are based on the results of a factor analysis, a statistical procedure that groups items with similar response patterns. The following findings describe students withdrawing from CU-Boulder through the voluntary formal withdrawal process between Fall 1992 and Spring 1998. It is important to note that students do leave the university without going through the VFW process and that their reasons for withdrawing may be different from those reported here. Overall, we can conclude that mid-term departure from the university is a turbulent situation for students. Students do not cite only one reason for withdrawing, but many, indicating that the interaction of a variety of situational forces is responsible for their decision to leave. Further, regardless of how students feel at the time, they are not able to predict accurately whether they intend to return to CU-Boulder in the future. Regardless of whether they say they will "definitely return" or "definitely not return," about one-third are back at CU-Boulder within four semesters. Other findings include:
Students indicate whether each of 28 items is or is not a reason for withdrawing. These 28 items were grouped into nine categories of reasons for withdrawal (for example, both "Impersonal attitudes of faculty and staff" and "UCB campus was too impersonal" are grouped under the "Impersonality" category). In general, students often cite more than one reason and, in fact, more than one category, for withdrawing. On average, students cite five individual reasons and three categories of reasons for withdrawing (see list). For example, one student selected "emotional problems," "need to get myself together, " and "inadequate financial aid from parents" as individual items. Another student cited "health problems or emergency," "emotional problems, " "housing/roommates/commuting," "family responsibilities," "on probation/own academic performance" and "inadequate study habits." The nine categories are listed in the table below, along with the percent of students who selected each as a reason for withdrawing. In all years, personal/academic adjustment is cited as the primary reason for withdrawing. In some cases, students leave because of problems with or complaints about CU-Boulder itself. In these cases, it is possible that improved services, responsiveness, or other action by the university could prevent withdrawals. At other times, students withdraw because of personal issues that are not related to CU-Boulder. While some services, such as counseling, may be helpful for these students, in general these students’ reasons for leaving are not under the university’s control. (Click here to see the list of items in each group, which includes information on whether the problem is university-based or individual-based.) Reasons for withdrawing By Calendar Year ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Year | | | |-------------------------------------------------------| | | | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | Total* | |------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+--------| |Personal/Academic Adjustment | 76%| 78%| 78%| 77%| 79%| 73%| 77%| 77%| |Health/Family Issues | 54%| 52%| 54%| 54%| 53%| 53%| 50%| 53%| |Job Issues | 34%| 40%| 38%| 36%| 38%| 36%| 36%| 37%| |Social Fit | 36%| 38%| 34%| 35%| 40%| 36%| 43%| 37%| |CU Dissatisfaction | 35%| 33%| 32%| 36%| 40%| 36%| 38%| 36%| |Money Issues | 31%| 37%| 32%| 33%| 30%| 26%| 31%| 32%| |Couldn't get Courses | 14%| 12%| 14%| 14%| 16%| 15%| 17%| 14%| |Couldn't get Program | 12%| 6%| 10%| 7%| 8%| 9%| 10%| 8%| |Racial/Ethnic Tension | 5%| 3%| 5%| 2%| 3%| 2%| 4%| 4%| |Total (N) | 117| 240| 326| 342| 289| 211| 107| 1632| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Note that students were free to choose as many reasons as they wanted; thus, the totals add up to more than 100% +1992 and 1998 figures reflect one term only - Primary reason for withdrawing In addition to giving their specific reasons for withdrawal, students answer the question "Was your primary reason for withdrawing personal, academic, financial or employment?" For example, a student may withdraw because of emotional problems (a personal reason) or because they are on probation (an academic reason). However, both of these reasons are included in the "personal/academic adjustment" category. Because of this kind of overlap between different individual reasons and the category scales, we find that the results of our analysis are not related to students’ answers to the "primary reason" question. Given students’ clear preference for using a wide variety of reasons to explain their withdrawal, it seems that this question is not very useful in understanding why students withdraw. - Comparison over time The graph below shows changes over time in the endorsement of the nine categories of reasons for withdrawal. As can clearly be seen, there is little change in students’ tendency to select any one category from year to year, or to select one category more or less than others, in the years studied.
- Personal/academic adjustment By far the most common reason for voluntary formal withdrawal is personal/academic adjustment. Also, over the entire survey period, 300 students (18%) selected only this reason for withdrawing. This category includes a variety of items, from general doubts about one’s suitability for college to being on academic probation. Student comments include:
Over all years, 77% of students select at least one item in this category as a reason for withdrawing. Looking at specific items, 55% of all students cite the "need to get myself together" and 47% of all students say that "emotional problems" led to their withdrawal. Students who select these items also tend to select many other items, from feeling isolated to disliking the quality of instruction at CU-Boulder to finding CU’s atmosphere too impersonal. Students who select any other category of responses also tend to select one or more items in the personal/academic adjustment category. The diagram below shows how responses to other categories relate to the adjustment category. Double lines and arrows indicate a stronger relationship. "Couldn’t get program" is set aside because this reason is not related to other reasons for withdrawing.
- Health/Family Issues The second-most common reason for voluntary formal withdrawal, cited by 53% of students, involves either personal or family health problems or family responsibilities. Students’ comments reflect a wide variety of reasons, including:
- Job More Important Over a third of withdrawing students (37%) state that conflicts between school and job demands, or an offer of a full-time job, enticed them to leave the university. Comments in this category do not necessarily refer to students’ needing to work in order to support themselves. See also the "money issues" category, below. Some student comments include:
- Social Interaction On average, 37% of students going through voluntary formal withdrawal report feeling alone or isolated, dissatisfied with housing, roommates, or commuting, or dissatisfied with the "party atmosphere" at CU-Boulder. These same students are likely to mention CU’s impersonality and adjustment issues. Some student comments include:
- Dissatisfaction with the university This fairly broad category includes items specifically mentioning the impersonality of CU-Boulder’s campus or faculty/staff, large class sizes, poor quality of instruction or advising, and the general CU-Boulder atmosphere. Overall, 36% of students report that complaints about the university contributed to their decision to complete voluntary formal withdrawal. A wide variety of comments reflect university dissatisfaction, including:
- Money Issues This category captures problems with financial aid, lack of financial support from parents, inability to find part-time work, and budgeting problems. Overall, 32% of students report withdrawing for money-related reasons. Many students withdrawing because of money also report job conflicts or opportunities (see above), and most also report adjustment issues. Some comments include:
- Couldn’t Get Courses This category of responses is cited by only 14% of voluntary formal withdrawal students. It includes both inability to get courses required for the major and inability to get courses that the student wished to take.
- Couldn’t Get Program Only 8% of students cite an inability to enroll in their school, college, or major of choice as a reason for voluntary formal withdrawal, and this category remains the least-cited category (except for racial/ethnic tension) throughout all years covered in this report. Some student comments include:
Relationships to Demographic Characteristics - Ethnicity There are few differences among the major ethnic groups at CU-Boulder in reasons for voluntary formal withdrawal from the university. The one difference that can be identified is that White and Asian-American students are somewhat more likely than Black, Hispanic/Latino and Native American students to cite job conflicts as a reason for withdrawing. Reasons for withdrawing All years, by Ethnicity --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Ethnicity | | |------------------------------------------------------------| | | | Hisp./ | Asian/ | | | Amer. | | | | White | Latino | Pacific| Black | Foreign| Indian | Total | |------------------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-------| |Personal/Academic Adjustment | 77% | 69% | 82% | 83% | 80% | 72% | 77% | |Health/Family Issues | 52% | 61% | 59% | 47% | 67% | 48% | 53% | |Job Issues | 38% | 28% | 45% | 26% | 25% | 28% | 37% | |Social Fit | 37% | 32% | 46% | 26% | 40% | 36% | 37% | |Impersonality | 35% | 34% | 45% | 23% | 42% | 36% | 36% | |Money Issues | 31% | 28% | 40% | 42% | 27% | 28% | 32% | |Couldn't get Courses | 15% | 9% | 20% | 7% | 12% | 20% | 14% | |Couldn't get Program | 8% | 9% | 12% | 4% | 12% | 8% | 8% | |Racial/Ethnic Tension | 4% | 4% | 2% | 0% | 5% | 8% | 4% | |Total Number in Group | 1228 | 146 | 102 | 42 | 40 | 25 | 1591 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Totals include responses from 8 students whose racial/ethnic identification is recorded as "unknown". Further, race/ethnicity information was not available for 41 students. It is also important to consider differences in overall university withdrawal rates based on ethnicity of students. The following table shows rates of voluntary formal withdrawal for each ethnic group, from 1992 through 1997. These were calculated by dividing the number of withdrawals in each group during fall semesters by the total fall undergraduate enrollment for these years. Percent of ethnic group enrolled who completed voluntary formal withdrawal Fall semesters only, 1992-1997
- Gender Male and female students report some differences in reasons for withdrawing. Men are more likely to withdraw because of job issues, including competing time demands or offers of full-time employment. Men are also slightly more likely to withdraw because of money issues. Women are more likely to withdraw because of health and family issues or dissatisfaction with social interaction. Women are also somewhat more likely to withdraw because of dissatisfaction with the university, including issues of impersonality, size, and quality. There is essentially no difference between the rates of voluntary formal withdrawal for men and women (both are .01% over the survey period). ----------------------------------------- | | Gender | | |----------------| | | | | | | Male | Female | |----------------------+-------+--------| |Job issues | 42% | 33% | |Money Issues | 35% | 30% | |Health/Family Issues | 44% | 62% | |Social Interaction | 32% | 42% | |Dissatisfaction w/CU | 34% | 40% | |Total | 557 | 439 | ----------------------------------------- - Family/financial resources There are no significant differences among students with different levels of family resources in reasons for withdrawing. Even money issues are cited by similar proportions of students from families with low, medium, and high income. - Work status while at CU Work status at CU is strongly related to job-related withdrawals. Students who report that they work are more likely than students who don’t work to withdraw for job-related reasons. Students who work more (over 20 hours per week) and students who work off-campus are also more likely to withdraw for job-related reasons. Finally, students who are not working while enrolled at CU are much less likely to cite money issues as a reason for withdrawing. All years, by Work Status While Enrolled ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Work Status | | | |--------------------------------------------------------| | | | | 20 hrs/week | 20+ hrs/week | | | | None |on campus | off campus | on campus | off campus | Total | |----------------------+-------+----------+------------+-----------+------------+-------| |Job Issues | 16% | 20% | 32% | 48% | 64% | 37% | |Money Issues | 21% | 32% | 33% | 37% | 39% | 31% | |Total (N) | 517 | 171 | 307 | 171 | 77 | 1586 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Work status responses were not available for 46 students. - Self-reported GPA Students whose GPAs are 3.0 or higher are much less likely to cite issues of personal/academic adjustment, particularly needing to get oneself together or academic performance, in explaining their withdrawal than are students with lower GPAs. However, while the numbers are lower, these higher-GPA students still cite personal/academic adjustment as the most common cause of withdrawal. All years, by Self-Reported GPA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | GPA | | | |---------------------------------------------| | | |less than| 2.0 - | 2.5 - | 3.0 - | 3.5 or | | | | 2.0 | 2.5 | 3.0 | 3.5 | above | Total | |------------------------------+---------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------| |Personal/Academic Adjustment | 93% | 85% | 77% | 72% | 67% | 77% | | Own academic performance | 87% | 54% | 35% | 19% | 14% | 37% | | Need to get self together | 80% | 70% | 57% | 45% | 40% | 58% | |Social Interaction | 45% | 40% | 36% | 31% | 35% | 37% | |Dissatisfaction w/CU | 39% | 39% | 34% | 36% | 32% | 36% | |Money Issues | 44% | 39% | 33% | 27% | 20% | 32% | |Total | 201 | 302 | 407 | 372 | 263 | 1545 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Self-reported GPA responses were not available for 87 students. - Residency Reasons for withdrawing do not differ for residents and nonresidents. - Age Reasons for withdrawing do not differ for students of different ages. Students are asked whether they plan to re-enroll at CU-Boulder at a later date. Responses to this question are unrelated to whether students actually do return. The majority of students (55%) say that they will definitely return to CU. Only 18% of students say that they will definitely not return. However, in truth, about 34% of all voluntary formal withdrawal students between Fall 1992 and Fall 1996 actually returned to CU within four semesters, regardless of how they answered the "plan to return" question. Actual Re-enrollment within 4 Semesters By Planned Re-enrollment (Row Percents) ---------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | Re-Enrolled | Total | |--------------------------------+-------------+---------| |2:Plans to Re-Enroll at CU | | | | Yes | 34% | 896 | | Undecided | 33% | 441 | | No | 36% | 295 | ---------------------------------------------------------- - Relationship between reasons for withdrawal and plans to re-enroll Students who say that they plan to re-enroll are:
Students who actually re-enroll are:
Other points:
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Last revision 07/08/05  PBA Home | Strategic Planning | Institutional Research & Analysis | Budget & Finances | Questions? Comments? 15 UCB, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309-0015, (303)492-8631 © 2001, The Regents of the University of Colorado |
