THE TRANSITION TO COLLEGE - DIVERSE STUDENTS, DIVERSE STORIES

While much is known about the role of student involvement in various dimensions of student change and development, considerably less is known about how students become involved as they make the transition from work or high school to college. This paper describes the results of a series of focus-group interviews with 132 diverse, new students entering a community college; a liberal arts college; an urban, commuter, comprehensive university; and a large research university. The study identifies the people, experiences, and themes in the processes through which students become (or fail to become) members of the academic and social communities on their campus.