Effect of a freshman engineering program on retention and academic performance

Longitudinal studies using seven years of student record data were recently performed on the students participating in a freshman-engineering program (called TIDE) and on students in a comparison group. The results show that: (1) a statistically significant larger percentage of TIDE students graduated in engineering than students from the comparison group; and (2) there was no significant difference in academic performance (as measured by final GPA) between TIDE and traditional students. TIDE students entering the university ready for calculus had a 14% better graduation rate (significance level of α = 0.001), students entering ready for pre-calculus had a 16% better graduation rate (α = 0.10), women entering ready for calculus had a 23% better graduation rate (α = 0.001) and women entering ready for pre-calculus had a 26% better graduation rate (α = 0.05). The paper briefly describes the TIDE program, presents the data, and discusses the results.