[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-590114-105":59,"doc-detail-590114-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","helping-students-fig-ure-it-out-a-large-scale-study-of-freshmen-interest-groups-and-student-success","Helping Students FIG-ure It Out - A Large-Scale Study of Freshmen Interest Groups and Student Success","","AERA Open 2021 research examines how first-year interest groups (FIGs) affect student graduation and retention using transcript data on over 76,000 freshmen. Propensity score matching is applied to course-level measures to reduce selection bias. FIG participation corresponds to higher graduation and re-enrollment, especially among self-identified underrepresented racial minority students. Topic modeling of survey responses from more than 12,500 FIG students shows social components are most beneficial, without stronger social mentions for that minority subgroup.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/helping-students-fig-ure-it-out-a-large-scale-study-of-freshmen-interest-groups-and-student-success/590114/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/helping-students-fig-ure-it-out-a-large-scale-study-of-freshmen-interest-groups-and-student-success/590114.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Adam","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":19},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"How does the study evaluate the impact of first-year interest groups (FIGs) on student outcomes?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It uses transcript data for over 76,000 students and applies propensity score matching on course-level data to address selection bias when comparing FIG and non-FIG students.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What overall outcomes are linked to FIG participation in the results?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Graduation and re-enrollment rates for FIG students are higher than for non-FIG students, with the effect more pronounced for self-identified underrepresented racial minority students.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What do topic modeling results suggest about which FIG elements help students?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Topic modeling of survey responses from over 12,500 FIG students indicates social aspects of FIGs are the most beneficial to students.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},590114,1792166302,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":19,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":56,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},1374404737137,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","AERA Open  \nJanuary-December 2021, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 1–19 DOI: 10. 1177/23328584211021857  \nArticle reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)© The Author(s) 2021. [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero](https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero)  \nHelping Students FIG-ure It Out: A Large-Scale Study of Freshmen  \nInterest Groups and Student Success  \nLovenoor Aulck  \nJoshua Malters  \nCasey Lee  \nGianni Mancinelli  \nMin Sun  \nJevin West  \nUniversity of Washington  \nFreshman seminars are a ubiquitous offering in higher education, but they have not been evaluated using matched comparisons with data at scale. In this work, we use transcript data on over 76,000 students to examine the impact of first-year interest groups (FIGs) on student graduation and retention. We first apply propensity score matching on course-level data to account for selection bias. We find that graduation and re-enrollment rates for FIG students were higher than non-FIG students, an effect that was more pronounced for self-identified underrepresented racial minority students. We then employ topic modeling to analyze survey responses from over 12,500 FIG students to find that social aspects of FIGs were most beneficial to students. Interestingly, references to social aspects were not disproportionately present in the responses of self-identified underrepresented racial minority students.  \nKeywords: first-year seminars, educational data mining, attrition, graduation, propensity score matching, topic modeling  \nUndergradUate retention has long been an area of great interest in education, motivated in part by consistently high rates of college students not completing their degrees (Demetriou & Schmitz-Sciborski, 2011; Tinto, 1987) . Recent estimates from the National Center for Education Statistics have about 40% of first-time, full-time bachelor’s degree-seeking students at 4-year postsecondary institutions not graduating within 6 years of first enrollment (Hussar et al., 2020; McFarland et al., 2018; McFarland et al., 2019) and the graduation rates are even lower for racial minority and Hispanic students (de Brey et al., 2019; Swail et al., 2003) . These noncompleting students account for a lost investment on many fronts, with students spending valuable time/energy on their unfinished educational pursuits andinstitutions collectively spending billions on educating the students who leave their campuses (Johnson, 2012; Raisman, 2013). Of particular interest is the fact that a large number of those leaving higher education without degrees are the 20% to 30% of first-year (i.e., freshman) students seeking baccalaureate degrees who do not return for a second year of schooling (National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2019; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; Tinto, 1987) .  \nOne way in which universities have combated freshman attrition and attempted to improve the college experience is through the implementation of freshman orientation  \nseminars (freshman seminars) . Freshman seminars are courses focused on helping incoming students transition to college life, both socially and academically (Permzadian & Credé, 2016; Purdie & Rosser, 2011; Upcraft & Gardner, 1989) . Freshman seminar courses draw on broader educational retention theory and the impact of social integration on persistence on students’ academic trajectories (Tinto, 1987) . On large college campuses, freshmen often feel as though they do not have a personalized identity (i.e., they see themselves as another “face in the crowd”) while feeling overwhelmed by the competitive environment of higher education (Sullivan & Wulff, 1990) . Freshman seminars (and, more specifically, learning communities) often rely on block scheduling and coregistration of classes, thus allowing students to take classes with the same group(s) of students. This promotes a sense of community, belonging, and provides freshmen with a means by which to m","cbCaib3Ixi7VNsH3","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaib3Ixi7VNsH3","pdf",692644,"English","# Introduction\n## Freshman attrition and retention context\n## Freshman seminars and social integration theory\n# Methods and analysis\n## Data sources and scale\n## Propensity score matching approach\n## Topic modeling of FIG student surveys\n# Findings\n## Graduation and re-enrollment effects\n## Benefits of social aspects across subgroups","[{\"question\":\"How does the study evaluate the impact of first-year interest groups (FIGs) on student outcomes?\",\"answer\":\"It uses transcript data for over 76,000 students and applies propensity score matching on course-level data to address selection bias when comparing FIG and non-FIG students.\"},{\"question\":\"What overall outcomes are linked to FIG participation in the results?\",\"answer\":\"Graduation and re-enrollment rates for FIG students are higher than for non-FIG students, with the effect more pronounced for self-identified underrepresented racial minority students.\"},{\"question\":\"What do topic modeling results suggest about which FIG elements help students?\",\"answer\":\"Topic modeling of survey responses from over 12,500 FIG students indicates social aspects of FIGs are the most beneficial to students.\"}]","Helping Students FIG-ure It Out - A Large-Scale Study of Freshmen Interest Groups and Student Success | PDF",1792068821,48]