THE TRANSITION TO COLLEGE - DIVERSE STUDENTS, DIVERSE STORIES

While much is known about the role of student involvement in various d imensions of student change and development, considerably less is know n about how students become involved as they make the transition from work or high school to college. This paper describes the results of a series of focus-group interviews with 132 diverse, new students enteri ng a community college; a liberal arts college; an urban, commuter, co mprehensive university; and a large research university. The study ide ntifies the people, experiences, and themes in the processes through w hich students become (or fail to become) members of the academic and s ocial communities on their campus.