The General College Studies

Despite many changes, some elements of contemporary student populations undoubtedly remain constant. To identify these stable factors and to project inferences from one year's student body to another year's is the purpose of much research in the counseling and student personnel area. During the year 1967-68, the Student Personnel Division of the General College of the University of Minnesota made a concerted effort to study one year's General College population from various points of view. Some of the results of that effort are reported. Though the reports given here are separately titled and attributed to individual authors, they might well be described as one study with several co-authors. Using a common data pool, Student Personnel Office researchers attempted an in-depth analysis of the 1966-67 freshman class. Thomas Hedin studied the relationship between counseling and student motivation; Sander Latts investigated the correlation between achievement and student choice of major; William Packwood analyzed the relationship between student motivation and academic achievement; and Barry Weinhold attempted to isolate the impact of outside employment on student achievement. (Author/KJ)