| Abstract: | Although it is commonly believed that college counseling positively affects student retention and further, that there are convincing data and evidence to support such a belief, an extensive literature search found no objective evidence at all on the relationship of a counseling center's conventional one-to-one counseling and therapy activities with short-term student retention. Two program evaluations which attempt to relate one-to-one individual counseling and psychotherapy to student retention rates at an urban regional state university are discussed. Changes in attendance rates, such as dropping out or retuning between quarters are the criteria used to evaluate program effects for both studies. The first study searched for discernible statistically significant effects. Three-quarters of comparisons of upperclassmen found conceivable retention advantages of students receiving counseling center services over a base-rate group. Yet the freshmen results suggest that counseling may be associates with student attrition, not retention. The second study investigated the relationship between retention and possibly relevant presenting problems and demographic variables of students undergoing individual counseling. No attendance differences among counseled students were found due to age, gender, or presenting problem. Following a discussion of the results, suggentions for future research are presented. A longitudinal, quasi-experimental controlled study of the impact counseling on student retention is clearly needed. |
