More than money? The stop out student experience

The purpose of this qualitative study was to further understand the decision-making by students who chose to stop out and how they came to resolve the circumstance that allows for a successful return to college. Additionally, this study aimed to capture how students perceive their ability to complete college or return after withdrawing, including surrounding behaviors and strategies used to return to college. This study captured the narratives of nine purposefully selected participants, who were either currently enrolled in or graduated with a general studies bachelor’s degree, from a large 4-year university in the greater Northeast. The program was specifically designed for returning students who have had a disruption in their enrollment and have later returned to complete their degree. I collected and analyzed data through emergent themes and open coding to describe the essence of each participant’s experiences. These findings were congruent with similar research and led to additional recommendations for enrollment strategies, supporting the need for higher education to adopt a comprehensive systems approach that recognizes stop out behavior as strategic life navigation rather than an institutional or student failure.