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5 Sample Literature Review
5 Sample Literature Review
5 Sample Literature Review
In the search for relevant related studies, two main search engines were used: Google and
Google Scholar. An important source was the use of digital databases, including Education
Abstract Full Text ERIC and ProQuest. All the search was done via New York State University
library website using the following key words: college persistence, college success, student
success in college, and nontraditional students in college. In addition, other related articles were
searched from online journals: American Educational Research Journal, College Student
Journal, Journal of College Student Development, Journal of College Student Retention, Journal
of College Student Personnel, Journal of Higher Education, and Research in Higher Education.
High school GPA is found to be the best predictor of college retention (Atkinson &
Geiser, 2009; Geiser & Santelices, 2007; Martinez, 2011; Pike & Saupe, 2002; Stewart, 2010).
Stewart (2010) found from her research that there is a statistically significant relationship
between high school GPA and persistence. Similarly, Martinez’s (2011) later study revealed that
high school GPA is the next best predictor of persistence when he observed the positive
First semester college GPA is an important factor because it is connected to the transition
from high school to college. A study by Stewart (2010) revealed that there is a statistically
significant relationship between first year college GPA and their college persistence. Actually,
first semester college GPA is found to have a high impact on cumulative college GPA (Martinez,
2011). Similarly, another study found that first-semester college GPA is one of the two
significant predictors of student persistence (Stewart et al., 2015). These findings confirmed
Martinez’s (2011) finding that first semester college GPA is the best predictor of students’