Student Attrition, Retention, Persistence

After a few weeks of reading Tinto, Bean and others about what makes students stay and what makes them go, I have to say the theories make sense. Each piece of the theories seems coherent. The challenges and extensions of Tinto seem either warranted or as if they are taking Tinto out of context and applying his work to staying rather than going. In each of the models, my mind gets stuck at one point -- if you buy what these theorists are selling, colleges and universities have a very limited ability to affect students coming, staying or going. It seems as if 60% of the theories are pre-college traits. While this may lead credence to the increasing trend of enrollment management personnel to start connecting with students in middle school, I'm not sure how this theory will influence my work. It seems like common sense that you serve your students as best you can with the resources your institution has (though I sense this may not be the case for some of my counterparts at other institutions). It also gives me a framework for where to look for service or program needs. ...