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This study explored the impact of counseling on academic progress and retention, using both objective and self-reported measures from records of counseling clients (n = 2,365) and the general student body (n = 67,026) during 6 years at a Western state university. Among the findings: Counseled students showed superior retention compared to peers.
University administrators and researchers continue to seek a better understanding of why students leave college. Counseling centers are not exempt from this pressure to participate in retention efforts and research. Over the past 30 years, psychologists and educators have studied many variations on the relationship between counseling and student success. Campbell's 1965 seminal study of long-term gains made by students who sought counseling at the University of Minnesota reported a direct relationship between academic success and participation in counseling. Frank and Kirk (1975) followed 2,400 Berkeley students from 1966 until 1971, and found that students who made use of the student counseling service or the psychiatric service had either higher graduation rates after 4 years or were less likely to leave the university in poor academic standing. Gerdes and Mallinckrodt (1994) assessed college adjustment among 208 entering freshmen, both before and during their first semester of college, then followed the participants' academic standing over 6 years. They concluded that socioemotional adjustment difficulties predicted attrition as well as or better than difficulties in academic adjustment for these entering freshmen. In another study of freshmen retention, Bray, Braxton, and Sullivan (1999) found support for their belief that how first-time students deal with the stresses of college affects their success at social integration and, correspondingly, their eventual commitment to reenroll at their particular university.
Payne, Pullen, and Padgett (1996) studied the reasons given by 320 nonreturning students in the Fall of 1994 at a medium-sized, Southern university. After finding few demographic differences between returning and nonreturning student groups, the authors concluded that students left the university most often for either geographical reasons or to resolve personal or family difficulties. Rummel, Acton, Costello, and Pielow (1999) found that the majority of students leaving their institution were in good academic standing. Of these academically successful students, nearly 1 in 4 reported leaving the university due to personal problems. In a study that bridged counseling center outcome...