ABSTRACT

There has been growth in Early College High Schools, and other similar programs, to improve racial/ethnic minority and first-generation students’ access to higher education. As a result, there has been an increase in nontraditionally aged students (e.g., students under 18) in higher education. Despite increases in students under 18 attending universities, little is known about these students’ academic achievement and experiences. This mixed method study addresses that limitation by using institutional and interview data from one Hispanic-Serving Institution to examine the academic achievement and college experiences of young Latino/a students (i.e., beginning college before the age of 18). Generalized estimating equations were used to compare the academic performance of Latino/as <18 to Latino/a students ages 18–24, and interviews were conducted with a subset of the students to understand the results. Quantitative results indicate that young students outperformed students who are 18–24 years of age in terms of GPA over three semesters in college. Interviews showed that participating in high school programs designed for college bound students; an openness to seek help; and avoidance of high-risk behaviors were possible explanations behind the academic success of young Latino/as.

 抽象的

早期大学高中和其他类似项目不断发展，以改善少数族裔和第一代学生接受高等教育的机会。因此，接受高等教育的非传统年龄学生（例如 18 岁以下的学生）有所增加。尽管进入大学的 18 岁以下学生有所增加，但人们对这些学生的学业成绩和经历知之甚少。这项混合方法研究通过使用来自一家拉美裔服务机构的机构和访谈数据来考察年轻拉美裔/学生（即 18 岁之前开始上大学）的学业成绩和大学经历，从而解决了这一局限性。使用广义估计方程来比较拉丁裔/as <18 与 18-24 岁拉丁裔/a 学生的学业成绩，并对一部分学生进行访谈以了解结果。定量结果表明，在大学三个学期的 GPA 方面，年轻学生的表现优于 18-24 岁的学生。访谈显示，参加为即将上大学的学生设计的高中项目；愿意寻求帮助；避免高风险行为可能是年轻拉丁裔/拉丁裔取得学业成功的原因。