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Stopping-Out Of College: The Students' Stories, Diane Simpson Webber

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study focuses on young adults under the age of 26 who enrolled in a 4-year college, left college, then later re-enrolled in either the same or a different college. The students stopped-out of college for various reasons. Purposeful sampling identified eight participants, mostly from New England, who were in different stages of the stopping-out process. Qualitative data was gathered through interviewing these participants. The purpose of this study is to construct stories from the students' words and interviewee observations as a way to better understand how students made meaning from their stopping-out experiences. An overview of retention missions and …