Associations Between Student Attributes and Success

The April 2021 report uses logistic regression models to illustrate the associations between student attributes (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, high school GPA, etc.) and measures of persistence and graduation. We estimate how much more (or less) likely a student is to persist to 2nd fall or graduate within 4-6 years by having a certain attribute, relative to another student who is identical along other demographic characteristics, except for that one attribute. Both full-time, first-time (FTFT) and transfer students with fall or summer start dates are included in the analyses and inspected separately. For each persistence and graduation outcome, we focus on the three most recent cohorts with available data starting with FA19.

Persistence and graduation patterns vary across student attributes at CSU. Among both FTFT and transfer students, Colorado residents, females, and students with higher prior academic achievement (HS/Transfer GPA) have higher odds of persisting to 2nd fall and graduating in 4, 5, and 6 years. On the other hand, first generation and Pell/ASSET students have lower odds of persisting and graduating. We also observe variation in the association between certain student attributes and success outcome among FTFT and transfer population, separately. FTFT of racially minoritized identities have lower odds of persisting and graduating relative to their non-racially minoritized peers, particularly among Multi-Racial and Native American students. Transfers of Asian American and International identities have higher odds of persisting and graduating compared to their non-Asian American and non-International peers, all else equal.