The impact of extracurricular participation on the first year college experience of freshmen in a college of agriculture

The purpose of this study was twofold. First was to investigate the characteristics of the participants of a competitive team at the collegiate level. Secondly was to identify any differences between participants and non-participants of a competitive team at the collegiate level. The population of this study was traditional College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR) freshmen enrolled in the fall semester of 2007 at Texas Tech University. The sample consisted of two groups. The first group, participants, consisted of students who participated on a competitive team at Texas Tech University during their first year of college. The second group consisted of students who did not participated on a competitive team at Texas Tech University. A panel of academic experts used the Student Success Center to find criteria that could match non-participants to participants in an attempt to control for extraneous variables. The extraneous variables included gender, ACT score/ or equivalent, and academic major. Of the 30 students who were recruited and confirmed their participation in the study only 28 completed the Instruments. The sample of this study consisted of (N=28) traditional freshmen students. Data was collected at the end of the year from 28 students surveyed. The results show several variables are related to student perceptions and academic success. Further research is recommended to determine to what extent these variables are related. The results from this research can be used to model what impacts freshmen student’s perceptions and first year academic success.