Making it a Priority – A Tale of Course Registration and Student Success

The Honors College at Florida Gulf Coast University offers many benefits to motivate students toward academic excellence. This presentation explores the impact of one of those benefits, Priority Registration, on student success. From a student’s perspective, Priority Registration is considered the most valuable benefit, and is a benefit attached to good-standing in many Honors Colleges and Programs across Florida. It allows students, specifically incoming freshmen, to create a flexible schedule with desired courses. This flexibility becomes even more crucial for upper-level students conducting undergraduate research. Priority Registration makes it feasible for students to maintain the delicate balance between coursework and research, which is essential for their success. Administrators and the Honors Executive Board recognized the importance of Priority Registration and established a probation policy to motivate underperforming honors students. Under this policy, students lose the Priority Registration benefit once placed on academic probation. While this could motivate some students, others might become discouraged, possibly leading to dismissal from the college. Consequently, students lose opportunities in undergraduate research, which is crucial to their success, particularly for those pursuing graduate studies. This presentation uses student performance data to assess the policy’s effectiveness in terms of retention and student success. The insights gained from the analysis could be valuable in policymaking and help develop more effective strategies to enhance undergraduate research based on informed, data-driven decisions.