The Prediction of Voluntary Withdrawals from College: An Unsolved Problem

This study investigated the utility of personality measures as predictors of voluntary withdrawal from college. The sample consisted of 1,179 full-time students (323 males and 856 females); none of the students in the sample were dismissed for academic reasons. Four criterion groups were formed: high-achieving persisters (N = 500), high-achieving withdrawals (N = 87), low-achieving persisters (N = 491), and low-achieving withdrawals (N = 101). Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores and four factor scores derived from the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) were used to predict criterion group membership via discriminant analysis. Two significant discriminant functions (p < .01) were found and interpreted as academic aptitude and social immaturity. The first function separated the high-achieving and low-achieving groups; the second separated persisters from withdrawals for the lowachieving groups only. Post hoc tests showed that SAT scores were effective in discriminating between high- and low-achieving students, but that the CPI factor scores were of little value in predicting voluntary withdrawal.