Does Socioeconomics Tell the Whole Story? Exploring High School Demographics and Success in a University Introductory Biology Course

Students enter university programs with the hope of passing courses and eventually graduating with a degree. However, many students experience challenges transitioning into their program and the first year. Some of these challenges may be influenced by their pre-collegiate experiences, as certain students come from under-resourced communities and/or high schools that face challenges of their own. These pre-collegiate experiences are primarily outside the control of students yet can play a part in their college success. Further understanding these predictive factors and their correlation to student success in STEM is of importance in the journey to fix the “leaky STEM pipeline.” This study sought to explore these pre-collegiate factors within the context of biology. Utilizing students at a state university in Massachusetts, a mixed-methods approach was taken to explore the correlation between these factors and success in an introductory biology course. Findings from a linear regression analysis illustrate that a high school’s underrepresented minority population may be more of a predictor of success in introductory biology as opposed to socioeconomic categories. Student comments from these schools highlight the diverse challenges faced in these environments. Findings from this study can help guide further studies exploring first-year student experiences in biology.