Most students withdraw for personal reasons like employment or family related.
James,
Welcome to the forum. While I do not disagree that the majority of withdrawals are the result of personal issues as an institution how can you assist the students that will help them better cope with these issues?
Cindy Bryant
I agree with the replys, most students lack the life skills to manage the time for family and education which leads to poor attendance and therefore failure to engage. Once the interest and desire has been diminshed, it is much harder to re-engage.
There are a number of reasons why students leave. Some may be academic; they thought they might like the program but don't, they aren't used to being in school, they have poor study skills, etc. Others may be financial; they had no prior savings, the savings/funding they were relying on didn't pan out. Some students lack life skills or maturity.
Now some of these reasons for withdrawal can be helped with some support programs at the institution. We can provide students with study skill sessions, we can ask them in the admissions interview if they know anyone in the field and in the financial interview we can ask them about their resources.
Lisa,
You mentioned a very important factor in a students success, study and life skills. You also offer possible solutions to overcome these types of problems. As part of a retention plan many schools include a study and life skills course as a prerequisite.
Cindy Bryant
Most students withdraw from schools because of two major factors. The first being that their expectations are not met, whether they didn't do enough research or Admissions didn't give them a clear picture. The second reason is that something unexpected changed.
In my experience, students withdraw from programs for a combination of financial and personal reasons that make continuing education impossible at that particular time in their life. We try to offer assistance and advice to the best of our capabilities to try to help students continue enrollment.
some people cannot cannot what happenes throughout the course of their lives, other are able to manage it yet maintain obligations to education. others may get discouraged or caught up and no want to continue.
Chris,
The students that career schools serve are generally those that need their help the most. Many times these students have difficulty managing life's challenges due to limited funds or poor decisions. Career schools have always been a front runner in providing a network of services that assist the students in overcoming challenges.
Cindy Bryant
I see that most students withdraw from school before graduating beause:
1. the economy, students need to work more than come to school.
2. life it self, they get caught up in personal issues that they can't separate from school.
There are several reasons that students leave before competition of the course. Family emergencies, student’s expectation, stress, lack of time to study, lack of interest and much more…. We should find the areas to prevent students from withdrawing, with possible solutions for each student . When a student finds that he or she it’s not a number but a person that we care for, I believe that we can lower this rates at the school.
Well we have encounter numerous students enrolling for the wrong reasons like probation and child care. Than again we have students that really want to better themselves, but have not been able to finish to do illness or money issues. It's really hard to determine at the beggining what are the real reasons that students want to come to school, but if we were able to know this imporatnat information this will cut our drop rate tremendously.
Judy,
Thank you for sharing your viewpoint. You mention that it is hard in the beginning to determine why a student wants to come to school and I would like to share why I feel this is so. When students meet with their admissions representative/agent they are given a summary of what will take place that day; tour; assessment; program discussion; AND (for some) they are told that there is an acceptance process. The acceptance process places the student in a situation where they feel as if they are auditioning for the admissions representatives. This equates to the students saying everything that the rep wants to hear to be accepted. At the end of the day the student may not be able to sustain their commitment due to life's challenges.
Cindy Bryant
I feel that students enroll for the wrong reason. I would say that in admissions we really need to find out the core of why a student really wants to enroll into thye school. I also feel that when student enroll they may really want to succed at that time but then life happens and they have no transportation, or they get pregnant, or they lose their home, have no sitter...etc..
Belinda,
We all agree that life can happen to anyone. It is critical that an admissions representative be able to determine why a student wants to enroll. This factor is very important in regard to students mindset as to whether or not school will be a priority.
Cindy Bryant
Students withdraw from institution due to lack of support internally and externally.
Jeffrey,
How could an institution better support their students to help them stay in school?
Cindy Bryant
I believe most students withdraw because they lack the skills to satisfactorily deal with issues causing their decision to withdraw. This is true if the student has personal problems, problems with school personnel, or with their own skill levels within the classroom.
If the school has established and communicated to the students a network of support for the students to access resources to help them solve problems, there may be a positive resolution to their problems. They would feel empowered; having solved their own problems, and hopefully, act accordingly the next time one of life's hurdles emerges.
The majority of our students end up dropping out before graduation because “life gets in the wayâ€, which makes it so important for us to be transparent as to what will be expected of the student during their time in school and to ensure that the students have contingencies in place in case of the obstacles that will undoubtable crop up.
Students withdraw because they may feel overwhelmed or they just lack the motivation to continue.
