ABSTRACT

Professional skills are expected from college students; however, assessing students' professional skill development is challenging. In order to better prepare students for a career in today's global business environment, it is essential students develop interest and knowledge toward global awareness. This research is primarily concerned with the understanding of college students' interest toward global awareness. In order to unveil what factors affect students' interest toward global awareness, a survey was developed and data collected. Analyses of survey results suggested that gender, ethnicity and high involvement activities might positively affect interest toward global awareness.

Data mining and statistical analyses at a less selective institution reveal that the relationships between parents' educational level and some first year success indicators are not linear. Specifically, students who report that either parent or guardian(s) have an educational level beyond a baccalaureate degree or do not report parent education level fair worse in most first year success indicators as well as some pre-college enrollment characteristics than those students whose either parent or guardian(s) have some college or a baccalaureate degree. Mathematics SAT, Critical Reading SAT, placement tests, first semester credits attempted, first semester credits earned, first semester GPA, and one-year retention means among students grouped by five parent education levels are assessed. In addition to the findings, variable construction, definition of first generation students, exploratory analyses, inferential statistics, and predictive models are discussed. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and logistic and regression techniques, limits, and appropriateness of these techniques are investigated.

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