This study builds upon previous research on the effect of diversity on college students by examining and modeling the effects of diversity experiences for students of color and White students' transition to college. Specifically, structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to examine the direct and indirect effects of interactions with diverse peers and their sense of belonging in the second year at public universities. Positive interactions with diverse peers result in a greater sense of belonging to the campus community for all students, extending the link between the campus climate for diversity and transition to college.

Using critical race theory (CRT) as a framework, the authors analyze the educational inequities and racialized barriers faced by Latina/o college students when navigating the educational pipeline leading to a college degree. The impact of racialized structures, policies, and practices is examined in the context of how they influence the educational attainment and academic progress of Latinas/os. The article concludes by offering CRT-based policy and practical approaches to enhancing the success of Latina/o college students.

An analysis of three decades of data from national samples of entering college freshmen reveals that (a) there are substantial socioeconomic inequities in access to the most selective U.S. colleges and universities and that (b) American higher education is more socioeconomically stratified today than at any time during the past three decades. The increasing concentration of high-SES students in the most selective institutions appears to have come primarily at the expense of middle-SES students.

Notwithstanding years of retention efforts, graduation rates of Latinas/os remain alarmingly low. The purpose of this review is threefold. First, the authors go beyond traditional theory and highlight those scholars who shed new information on retention for Latina/o students. Second, they summarize factors that specifically affect Latina/o students. Third, promising practices for effectively retaining Latina/o students in higher education institutions are highlighted.

Using multi-institutional data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program's (CIRP) annual survey of entering freshmen, the Higher Education Research Institute's (HERI) Faculty Surveys, campus registrars' offices, and IPEDS data, we evaluated the extent to which peer institutional retention climates and faculty perceived campus climates influenced individual 6-year retention rates. We used hierarchical generalized linear models (HGLM) to examine the extent to which institutional climate (as measured by peer institutional retention climate and faculty perceived climate), net of students' ability, expectations, and family socioeconomic status, influence students' persistence behavior. We found that institutional retention climate, as defined by a student body's aggregated report of withdrawal intentions, did independently determine whether a student would persist or not. While past research has overlooked peer and faculty climates, the results from this work call for the attention of peer institutional retention climates.