Blog
Best Practices for Reducing Student Attrition at Colleges and Universities
Student attrition is one of the most persistent challenges facing higher education leaders. Every student who leaves before completing their degree represents a loss — not just in tuition revenue, but in human potential, institutional reputation, and community impact....
The Silent Dropout: How Anxiety, Homesickness, and Depression Drive Students Out of College
Every fall, thousands of students arrive on campus with move-in boxes, meal plans, and a plan for the next four years. By spring, a striking number of them are gone — not because they couldn't do the coursework, but because they couldn't carry the weight of being away...
Letting Go Without Losing Touch: A Parent’s Guide to College Student Mental Health
Dropping your student off at college is its own kind of grief and celebration wrapped into one weekend. And then they're gone — living in a dorm, managing their own schedule, making decisions you don't see, three states away or three thousand miles. The instinct to...
When Stress Becomes an Exit Door: Rethinking Retention Through a Mental Health Lens
When Stress Becomes an Exit Door: Rethinking Retention Through a Mental Health Lens Every fall, colleges welcome a new class with orientation schedules, move-in banners, and optimism about four-year graduation rates. By spring, a portion of that same class has quietly...
The Classroom Is a Retention Tool: What Faculty Can Do Before a Struggling Student Disappears
Ask most faculty what causes students to drop out, and the answer usually points somewhere else — financial aid, family circumstances, academic preparation. All of that is real. But faculty are often the last people to see a student before they vanish, and the...
Why Do College Students Drop Out? National Dropout Rates and the Real Role of Mental Health and Academic Pressure
Roughly a third of American college students never finish their degree. That single statistic hides a much more complicated story - one where money problems, mental health, academic struggles, and simple bad timing all tangle together. This piece breaks down the...
The Hidden Price Tag of Student Mental Health: What Attrition Really Costs Colleges
Every fall, admissions offices celebrate a full incoming class. Few celebrations mention what happens by junior year: a meaningful share of that class will be gone, and mental health struggles are now the single biggest reason why. For college leaders focused on...
The Retention Crisis You Can’t Afford to Ignore: Student Mental Health and the Path to Graduation
The numbers on your enrollment dashboard tell one story. The students quietly slipping out your institution's back door tell another. Across American higher education, student mental health has moved from a wellness concern to an enrollment and retention...
The Urgent Need for Student Mental Health Services in Higher Education
Executive SummaryStudent mental health has merged as a critical issue in higher education, with rising rates of anxiety, depression, and stress affecting academic performance, retention, and overall well-being. This white paper outlines the scope of the crisis, the...
Navigating the Line
Holding the Line: Navigating Demand and Resource Capacity in Campus Counseling If you work in a campus counseling center, you know this feeling: the waitlist grows, the calendar fills, students are presenting with greater complexity than ever before, and somewhere in...