Student-Faculty Interaction and Its Relation to Satisfaction, Aspiration, and College GPA for First-Generation College Students

摘要

This study explored whether the effects of student-faculty interaction on various outcomes - degree aspiration, college GPA, satisfaction with faculty contact, and satisfaction with the college experience - vary by student gender, ethnicity, social class, and first-generation status. The study used data on 95,537 students attending nine colleges who took the 2011 administration of the Student Experience in the ResearchUniversity (SERU) survey. The findings revealed differences in the frequency of student-faculty interaction by social class and ethnicity, differences in the level of satisfaction with advising and access to faculty by social class, and positive relations between degreeaspiration and specific interaction behaviors. The findings provide implications for educators, administrators, and others charged with maximizing the benefits of student-faculty interactions for all students to positively affect college persistence and retention.