Okay – so this recent Washington Post article by Jay Matthews has a catchy title. What are the sources for these gems? As it turns out the author cites a scholarly work: “College Student Retention: Formula for Student Success,” edited by Alan Seidman and published by the American Council on Education and Praeger. In particular he extracts a few key points from the piece by Alexander W. Astin and Leticia Oseguera of UCLA entitled “Pre-College and Institutional Influences on Degree Attainment,” on page 245. The work is based on extensive surveying at UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute which produces an annual survey of about 400,000 college freshmen across the country. The Post author presents their most intriguing findings as a list: Five Weird Ways to College Success. Excerpts of Mathews list follow… with a few of my own comments in square brackets. [ ]

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