Historically Underserved Students

The educational system prioritizes college success as a means to a range of health, psychological, and economic advantages (Perna, 2005). Despite the long-term benefits, the problem of attrition is wide-spread in the United States where 41% of students fail to complete their undergraduate education within 6 years (National Center for Education Statistics, 2015). The problem is more pronounced for students from historically underserved communities (e.g., ethnic minorities, low socio-economic status, first-generation college students) who continue to disproportionately dropout and underperform in college (Massey, 2006). For example, Kena et al. (2016) report a 27% attrition gap between White and Latino students. Additionally, White students

al., 2009; Saenz, Marcoulides, Junn, & Young, 1999; Tinto, 1975). Most recently, universities have shifted their focus to the implementation of high impact practices (HIPs) to promote academic achievement and student retention (Kuh, 2008). Although HIPs seem promising and are theoretically grounded on past research at the institutional level, few studies have prospectively analyzed their impact at the student level and fewer still have assessed their impact on historically underserved students. The current study aims to identify factors that may impede or facilitate the path to academic success, and explore to the role that HIPs can play along that

Two commonly accepted indicators of college achievement include cumulative GPA and college persistence. Grade point average is generally considered the most reliable measure of academic performance, and studies have found that both high school and first-year college GPAs are strong predictors of degree attainment (Beatty, Walmsley, Sackett, Kuncel, & Koch, 2015; Stewart, Lim, & Kim, 2015). College persistence encompasses various components related to retention. For example, some researchers have conceptualized persistence as a student’s decision to reenroll in courses for the following term, while others define it as a student’s perseverance that leads to graduation (Braxton, Jones, Hirschy, and Harley III, 2008; Arnold, 1999). Traditionally, college persistence has been assessed through questionnaires, first-term and first-year completion, and enrollment in the second academic year (Arnold, 1999; Davidson, 1999; Astin, 1993). These measures are widely used to predict college student success, especially as it relates to students from underserved