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Living-learning communities have been shown to have a number of positive impacts on undergraduate students within engineering and computer-science programs. A residentiallybased living-learning community (LLC) has been established at Gonzaga University. This LLC, based on students applying to participate over their first two academic years, is relatively modest in scope with competitions, invited speakers, and study-halls being among the primary special activities. Initial studies on retention indicated that, despite this simplicity, this LLC appears to have a significant, positive impact on student retention. In the present study, questions are addressed exploring whether the increased retention can be associated solely with the impact of the LLC, or whether self-selection into the LLC may provide a second explanation of higher retention based on apparent differences between the LLC students versus those students who do not apply for the LLC. Further, a question of longer term (through the senior year) impact of the LLC is explored. Results indicate that students entering the LLC as first-semester freshmen appear to have a higher self-assessment in terms of attributes that might commonly be associated with the entrepreneurial mindset (consistent with the invitation to join this LLC), but are otherwise quite similar to the non-LLC students. Results at the end of the semester indicate that the LLC students remain unchanged in terms of their confidence of completing a degree in engineering or computer science, whereas the population not participating in the LLC showed an overall decline in this confidence. These results suggest some minor, but potentially critical, differences among the two student cohorts at the beginning of the semester that are amplified during the first semester. Thus, it appears that a combination of activities within the LLC combined with student traits leading to application to the LLC may jointly explain the higher retention of these students. In terms of longer-term impact of the LLC, students within the junior and senior cohorts who were originally enrolled in engineering or computer science were asked to reflect on major influences on their decision to remain within, or leave, engineering. Results showed statistically significant differences (p =0.05) between students who participated in the LLC versus students who participated in other dorms in, among others, the following areas: dorm life in the first two years and interaction with students. This result is interpreted as direct impact of the LLC experience and is consistent with prior studies. This work contributes to the existing literature as it indicates that higher retention from an LLC, even in a very simple LLC such the one at Gonzaga University, may derive from a combination of both differences in the attributes of the students entering the LLC and experiences within the LLC during the first semester. The impact of the LLC appears to be retained, via personal connections gained through student interactions within an engineering/computer-science focused dorm, through the remainder of the undergraduate years.

Characteristics of Students Self-Selecting into a Freshman Living-Learning Community for Engineers and Computer Scientists