Residential Learning Community, Commuter and Traditional Residence Hall Freshmen

The impact that place of residence has upon the academic achievement and retention of FTIC freshmen at a public, urban commuter university in the Southeast is investigated. Three groups of students are compared on two measures of academic achievement and one measure of retention to ascertain any significant group difference between the subject groups who began their studies during academic years 1999-00 and 2000-01. The results indicate that there were no differences in academic achievement between the subject groups in terms of mean freshman grade point average. Statistically significant results were obtained when the groups were compared on the mean grade in Freshman English I. The residential learning community group achieved a significantly higher mean course grade than both the traditional residence hall and commuter groups. No group differences were found regarding retention into the second year of study.