INQ-110 | Sinking & Swimming

Full Title: Sinking and Swimming: Issues in Success in Higher Education

Topic Description:

For many students college represents the best four years of their lives. For others the story is rather different. On a national level, in 2005 only 54% of the students who had entered college in 1999 earned a bachelor’s degree. What difficulties must students overcome on their way to graduation? What factors can help determine the difference between sinking and swimming in the higher learning setting? Through reading and discussing scholarly and popular literature—both non-fiction and a work of fiction--viewing a set of documentaries, exploring through writing the academic and social issues, and putting into practice through a service project some of the strategies that have been linked to student success, we will investigate the college experience. By semester’s end we should have developed a broader view about what the higher learning experience entails and a clearer definition of how students can succeed in this setting.

Counts as Global? No

Topic Approved: March 2009