Correlations of Student Personality Components with First-Year Student Success and Retention

For the past three years, first year students in the [College] at [University] have been invited to participate in a survey focused on specific personality traits including Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Mindset, and Self-Direction, among others. Students were invited to participate in both a start-of-semester survey and an end-of-semester version during their first fall semester. Correlations of student responses on the start-of-semester survey with first semester GPA, retention to second semester, and retention to second year have been reported elsewhere. The current paper investigates changes in student responses across the two surveys and correlations with student success and retention. Comparisons with previous correlations identified for the start-of-semester-only survey are discussed. Results are compared to those available in the wider literature related to student personality and success.