The demand for college graduates is becoming increasingly apparent.
The fields of industry, business, and agriculture offer unlimited
opportunities for those who are qualified to assume positions
of leadership. In the field of agriculture, many new areas of technology have been developed in recent years. In some of these new fields many positions go unfilled because of the lack of properly trained personnel.
As the technology of our nation becomes increasingly complex,
requiring highly trained and skilled workers, the pressures of attaining a higher education are greatly multiplied. The disheartening fact that many students enter college only to be frustrated and over-whelmed by the magnitude of the work that is beyond their capacity emphasizes the need of this study.
The purpose of this study was to make a comparison of the high
school and college grade point earned by students in the School of Agriculture at Oregon State University.
The specific objectives were to compare (1) high school average
grades with college average grades in the same subject areas, (2) the effect of high school preparation compared to college achievement in the same subject areas, and (3) students from various sized high schools in accordance with grades received.
The data for this thesis was obtained from transcripts in the
office of the Dean of Agriculture and from the student files in the Registrar's Office.
Only those students who enrolled in the School of Agriculture as
fall term (1962) freshmen were considered in this study. The high
school subjects considered were Mathematics and/or Algebra, English, Chemistry, and Biology. These high school subjects were compared with college courses in Mathematics, English Composition, General Chemistry, and either General Botany or General Science, or General Zoology.
Between 35 and 40 percent of those students who achieved (3.00
and above) in high school went on to achieve in the same subject areas in college.
Of those students who did not achieve in high school between four
and 28 percent went on to achieve in the same subject areas in college.
Sixty-one to 83 percent of those students who received average
or above grades (2.00 and above) in high school went on to do average
or above work in college.
About two-thirds of those students who did below average work
in high school went on to do average or above in college. Only nine
percent of the below average high school English students were able
to do average work in college English.
The grade point average in the selected fields dropped an average
of .43 grade point between high school and college. The greatest
drop occurred in Science and English with a drop of a minus . 62 and
61 respectively. Mathematics dropped a minus .46 and Chemistry
dropped the least with a minus .03.
Students from schools under 200 enrollment grade point dropped
a minus 76 in the select study areas whereas students from school
size of 200-499, 500-999, and over 1000 students dropped a minus
.27, .49, and . 47 respectively
