EVALUATING PERSISTENCE AND DROPOUT RELATIVE TO CRISIS OF ATTRITION AND SOCIAL ISOLATION IN AN UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM

This research examines the crises of attrition in the students' population and study programs using descriptive statistics interpretation for solving social isolation for traditional face-to -face classroom education. The study used a descriptive research design with ‘variable values' to examine two-degree programs. The study used several testing methods to evaluate the statistical analysis of the social and academic characteristics of freshmen students in both the Informatics and Computer Science programs at the University of South Carolina Upstate from Fall 2018 to Fall 2019. The criterion variable was the student outcome (persistence or dropout), while the general structure matrix pattern was examined to validate the convergent factors. The methodology included a variance of the eigenfunction and values for interpreting the factor structure of the variable values. The findings suggest several mitigating factors which include improved persistence of “enrollment number, program delivery mode, GPA at time of completion and dropout, student orientation, and courses completed at the time of student dropout would help improve academic success for students.