19th Intl. Conference on The First-Year Experience
The Effect of First-Year Seminar (FYS) on Student Retention
Wonseok Suh
[email protected]
Smeal College of Business
Pennsylvania State University
Kyle Sweitzer
[email protected]
Smeal College of Business
Pennsylvania State University
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the First-Year Seminar on student
retention. The First-Year Seminar entitled the First-Year Seminar Business
Administration has been conducting the Picower Embark Program(PEP) project since the
year of 2003 to improve the first year business curriculum and reduce college drop out
rates. In this study, the authors seek to present findings regarding the effect of FYS on
students’ retention.
Background
As a challenging problem for the academic community, student retention became an
important issue for four-year colleges since the 1980s because student drop out brings
about financial loss, lower graduation rates and negative impressions (Lau, 2003). High
student retention rates are directly connected to a high percentage of students graduating
within 4 years. In 1995, the national average four-year graduation rate in the United
Kingdom was only 38% (Money, 1997).
Many researches have consistently indicated that college students who have difficulty in
continuing study usually left school within the first academic year (Lau, 2003; Wetzel,
O’Toole and Peterson, 1999). During their first year at universities, many students are
overwhelmed with the transition from high school to college life, and they become overly
stressed from the dramatic changes through the first year of college. That is, the first
academic year in college is the very critical period, which affects student retention rates.
So, the First-Year Seminar has great importance as emerging tools for universities to
decrease students’ drop out rates.
First-Year Seminar in the Smeal College of Business at the Pennsylvania State University
is designed to help new students learn about the university community. For the past four
years beginning with the 2003-2004 academic year, the First-Year Seminar project
sponsored by Picower Foundation has been undergoing revisions in order to improve the
quality of the course and reduce college drop out rates. The purpose of this study is to
investigate the effect of the First-Year Seminar and identify the factors on student
retention in the FYS program.
Course Details
First-Year Seminar, offered every semester in the Smeal College of Business at the
Pennsylvania State University, is designed to help new students learn about the new
college life. It offers an introduction to the university’s academic and student life
services, opportunities for interactive group working closely with a faculty member, and
a review of majors in the Smeal College of Business. To supplement and enhance
classroom learning, several out-of-class activities are included in the course. Students
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19th Intl. Conference on The First-Year Experience
also benefit from the participation of an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant who facilitates
classroom activities, mediates communication between students and instructors, and
provides insights from their personal experiences on topics.
Curriculum Report
Beginning with the fall 2003 semester, first year seminar in the Smeal College of
business underwent extensive review and change process with the support of the Picower
Foundation. This section focuses on the curricular changes and presents the major
curriculum innovations done in the past two years including the summary of the new
Picower modules.

Ethics Module
The Ethics module consists of two instructional parts: Business Ethics and Academic
Integrity. The collective purpose of this module is “to create awareness of ethical
behavior in academic life and in business decision making”.
This module covers 2 sessions of the first year seminar course and 7.69% of the PEP
curriculum. The figure 2.2 shows the module’s representation in PEP curriculum.
With this module, it is expected that “students will be able to recognize and evaluate
ethical issues of an academic and business nature from multiple perspectives by applying
ethical principles and a framework for ethical decision making to arrive at a judgment.

Diversity Module
The diversity module consists of two instructional parts: Celebrating diversity and
Workplace Diversity. This module “introduces first year concepts of ethnicity, race,
prejudice, stereotypes, multiculturalism, cultural programming, and workplace diversity
from a company perspective. This module covers 3 sessions of the first year seminar
course and 11.54% of the PEP curriculum.
With this module, it is expected that first year students in business will have an
understanding of their own diversity and what companies are doing to address workplace
diversity, and have a framework for evaluating a company’s diversity initiatives for
personal fit and future employment decision making.

Leadership Module
Leadership module “introduces first year seminar students in business to principles of
leader emergence, conflict management, planning”. This module covers 2 sessions of the
first year seminar course and 7.69% of the PEP curriculum. The figure XX shows the
module’s representation in PEP curriculum.
With this module, it is expected that first year seminar students will understand the
principles of leadership and begin using those principles to develop their leadership skills
during their academic career.

Community Service Module
Community Service module “introduces first year seminar students in business to
concepts of community, service, corporate citizenship, and social responsibility” This
module covers 4 sessions of the first year seminar course and 15.38% of the PEP
curriculum. The figure 2.5 shows the module’s representation in PEP curriculum.
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19th Intl. Conference on The First-Year Experience
With this module, it is expected that “first-year students in business will develop
academically and socially by gaining a deeper awareness of self and others, and by
developing an enhanced personal and business sense of citizenship, social responsibility,
and community.
First-Year Seminar Retention
Freshman-to-sophomore retention figures for the Smeal College of Business have been
impressive since the implementation of the Picower Embark Program in the fall of 2003.
Complete data have been collected, both for the Smeal College and for Penn State
University as a whole, for the entering class of 2003. Freshmen students who entered the
University Park campus of Penn State University in the fall of 2003, and who were
enrolled in the Smeal College First-Year Seminar, persisted to the sophomore year at a
rate of approximately 95 percent. This rate is higher than the university-wide rate of 93
percent, which is discussed in detail in the following section.
Penn State’s freshman retention rate has also consistently been among the highest in the
nation among public universities in the prestigious Association of American Universities
(AAU). Penn State’s most recent four-year average freshman retention rate of 93 percent
places it in a tie for eighth place among AAU public institutions. In addition, Penn State
ranks second for the highest freshman retention rate among public universities in the Big
Ten Conference.
What is quite encouraging for the Smeal College First-Year Seminar is that the freshman
retention rate for students in the Smeal College of Business is higher than the rate for
Penn State University as a whole. The retention rate for Smeal College freshmen, who
entered in the Fall of 2003, and who were enrolled in the Smeal College First-Year
Seminar, is 95 percent, versus the 93 percent figure for the university overall. Thus,
Smeal College freshmen are pulling up the university’s overall freshman retention rate,
and are clearly outperforming freshmen in some of the other colleges across the
University Park campus. Table 2 and 3 give the details on freshman retention by gender
and ethnicity.
Minority freshmen who entered the Smeal College in the fall 2003 semester also
persisted to the sophomore year at an encouraging rate. One particularly impressive
figure was the freshman retention of female African-American students, which was a
perfect 100 percent.
Smeal College Retention In the Major
Of the students in the Fall 2003 entering class who were enrolled in First-Year Seminar in
Business, 490 indicated a major in Business Administration, while 164 were enrolled in
the Division of Undergraduate Studies (DUS). Of the 490 students who listed Business
Administration as their major in Fall 2003, 463 of them remained in Business
Administration in the Fall 2004 semester, for a rate of 94.5 percent. Among the 164 who
listed DUS, 126 remained in DUS, while the others switched to one of several different
majors.
Since declaration of a major is not required until the spring term of the sophomore year,
the sophomore-to-junior figures on the majors are much more informative as to the
impact of the First-Year Seminar. Of the 446 students who began their sophomore year
(Fall 2004) with a major in Business Administration, 425 remained in a Smeal College
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19th Intl. Conference on The First-Year Experience
major upon the beginning of their junior year (Fall 2005). This is a retention rate of 95.3
percent. In addition, of the 123 students who began their sophomore year (Fall 2004) in
DUS, 93 decided on Smeal College majors, for a rate of 75.6 percent.
Table 1: Average Freshman Retention Rate for AAU Public Universities
(Four-year average freshman retention rate, 2000 to 2003 freshman cohorts)
Freshman
Rank
Institution
retention
rate
T-1
University of California-Los Angeles
97 %
T-1
University of Virginia
97 %
T-3
University of California-Berkeley
96 %
T-3
*University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
96 %
5
T-6
T-6
T-8
T-8
T-10
T-10
T-10
T-10
T-10
17
T-20
22
T-23
T-25
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
University of California-San Diego
University of California-Irvine
*Pennsylvania State University-Univ Park 93 %
University of Florida
*University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign 92 %
University of California-Davis
University of Maryland-College Park
*University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Texas-Austin
*Michigan State University
*Indiana University-Bloomington
*Ohio State University-Columbus
*Purdue University-West Lafayette
*University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
31
*University of Iowa
* Big Ten Institution
Source: U.S. News & World Report, “America’s Best Colleges 2006”
95 %
94 %
94 %
93 %
92 %
92 %
92 %
92 %
90 %
88 %
87 %
86 %
85 %
82 %
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Table 2 Retention Comparison by Freshman Cohorts
2002 Cohort 2003 Cohort
2004 Cohort
Female Native American
Female African American
Female Asian American
Female Hispanic American
Female White American
Female International
Female race not indicated
Female TOTAL
N/A
96.00%
98.00%
95.00%
97.10%
100.00%
93.30%
97.00%
N/A
100.00%
89.50%
87.50%
95.50%
100.00%
95.20%
95.00%
100.00%
100.00%
100.00%
84.60%
96.80%
85.70%
100.00%
96.60%
Male Native American
Male African American
Male Asian American
Male Hispanic American
Male White American
Male International
Male race not indicated
Male TOTAL
N/A
96.20%
93.80%
92.30%
95.20%
81.50%
100.00%
94.60%
N/A
85.00%
92.00%
91.70%
94.90%
100.00%
100.00%
94.50%
N/A
85.70%
93.80%
85.70%
96.00%
100.00%
94.10%
94.80%
All Native Americans
All African Americans
All Asian Americans
All Hispanic Americans
All White Americans
All International
All race not indicated
All Students
N/A
96.10%
96.40%
93.50%
96.00%
87.20%
97.40%
95.70%
N/A
91.20%
90.90%
90.00%
95.20%
100.00%
97.90%
94.70%
100.00%
90.30%
97.30%
85.30%
96.40%
94.10%
96.40%
95.60%
Business Administration Majors
90.50%
94.50%
95.80%
Table 3 Retention Comparison by Academic Year
Freshman
Sophomore
to
to
Sophomore
Junior
Female Native American
Female African American
Female Asian American
N/A
100.00%
89.50%
N/A
100.00%
88.20%
Freshman
to
Junior
N/A
100.00%
78.90%
Female Hispanic American
Female White American
Female International
Female race not indicated
Female Total
87.50%
95.50%
100.00%
95.20%
95.00%
85.70%
95.70%
100.00%
95.00%
95.10%
75.00%
91.80%
100.00%
95.20%
91.00%
Male Native American
Male African American
Male Asian American
Male Hispanic American
Male White American
Male International
Male race not indicated
Male Total
N/A
85.00%
92.00%
91.70%
94.90%
100.00%
100.00%
94.50%
N/A
94.10%
100.00%
100.00%
95.40%
83.30%
96.30%
95.60%
N/A
80.00%
92.00%
95.80%
90.90%
83.30%
96.30%
90.80%
All Native Americans
All African Americans
All Asian Americans
All Hispanic Americans
All White Americans
All International
All race not indicated
All Students
N/A
91.20%
90.90%
90.00%
95.20%
100.00%
97.90%
94.70%
N/A
96.80%
95.00%
94.40%
95.50%
89.50%
95.70%
95.40%
N/A
88.20%
86.40%
87.50%
91.30%
89.50%
95.80%
90.90%
Business Administration
Majors
94.50%
95.30%
N/A
Limitation
This study began in the fall 2003 semester and has proceeded for the past two years. This
is a short period of time in which to assess some of the longitudinal questions at hand.
Also, the experience of students taking the First-Year Seminar can be influenced by other
factors such as their relationships with new friends and various kinds of college activity
participation.
References
Garripa, S. P. (2004). Factors associated with student retention among college haspanic
freshmen attending border institution. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Texas
A&M University.
Lau, L. K. (2003). Institutional factors affecting student retention. Education, 124(1),
126-136.
Money, Inc. (1997) “How We Rank the Colleges.” Money, 26.9, 115-130.
Wetzel, J. N., O’Toole, D., Perterson, S. (1999). Factors affecting student retention
probabilities: A case study. Journal of Economics and Finance, 23(1), 45-55.
Zuben, F. C. (2004). Evaluating the factors related to first-year college student retention
from the perspective of a university-based counseling center. Unpublished