The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2 - 17

The Help I Didn't Know I Needed

Analysis

For FIT students, participating in

Quantitative data were analyzed using frequency counts, crosstabs, and t-tests to create
descriptive information and allow for comparisons between groups regarding GPA and retention. Qualitative data were analyzed using
Saldaña's (2013) and Creswell's (2014) coding
guidelines. Specifically, two members of the
research team coded each focus group transcript individually and then met to discuss the
codes, categories, and themes that emerged; in
vivo coding was used when possible in order
to maintain the participants' own language
(Saldaña, 2013). To strengthen trustworthiness
and credibility, all researchers read through
and discussed codes, categories, and themes
and worked together to determine how the
data would be represented, discussed, and
interpreted in the final manuscript (Creswell,
2014).

the program was an important part

LIMITATIONS
As per the purpose and appropriate use of
qualitative research, the results of this qualitative study are meant to provide an in-depth
understanding rather than to be broadly generalizable (Creswell, 2014). However, these
results may be transferable to other colleges
and universities where similar living-learning
communities and partnerships (or potential partnerships) exist. This study examined
a single living-learning community at one
Midwestern university. This LLP only accepts
first-year students to the program and does
not have opportunities for second-year or continuing students to remain as participants in
the program, with the exception of becoming
a student mentor the following year. The LLP
includes students from one particular interest

of their transition to college and
subsequent growth as both a person
and a student .

area (i.e., limited to majors in one academic
college on campus), and the size and accommodations of the current residence hall limit
participation to no more than 100 students
each year.

FINDINGS
Retention and GPA
The first and second research questions in
this study centered on GPA and retention
rates. To answer these questions, quantitative data from FIT students were compared to
data from a comparison group of students in
the same academic college but not in the FIT
program (to compare GPAs) and from overall
university data (to compare retention rates).
The first research question focused specifically
on students' GPA. The data were analyzed in
three ways: comparing the 2014-2015 school
year student groups, comparing the 2015-2016
school year student groups, and comparing
all FIT students to all comparison group students (combining the data from both school
years by group). An independent samples
t-test (see Table 2) revealed that there was a
significant difference in the average GPA of
-
students in the FIT program (X = 2.96) versus
that of students from the same college but not
-
in the FIT program (X = 3.18) for the 2014V o l u m e 4 4 , No. 2 * 2 0 1 8

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2