“The best compendium of information on organizational development related to colleges and universities and their students around. It is thoughtful, thorough, and focused on a limited number of areas where a huge number of factors are involved.”

John Bean, Indiana University

“A valuable, useful guide for institutional dialogue and planning around student retention. Completing College will be welcomed by countless retention committees struggling with the magnitude of their charge and wondering where to start.”

David Kalsbeek, DePaul University

“In Completing College, Vincent Tinto lays out in clear and compelling terms the actions that colleges and universities can and must take to ensure that larger numbers of their students succeed. The improvement agenda must be about fixing institutions, not fixing students; and Tinto describes the conditions necessary—conditions that institutions can intentionally create. Perhaps most importantly, Tinto notes that colleges typically have arrayed their retention initiatives around the margins of the institution, thus forfeiting the enormous potential that lies in the purposeful redesign of students’ classroom experiences. Here, in a timely and concrete fashion, he offers evidence-based strategies that focus institutional and faculty energy where it matters most.”

Kay McClenney, University of Texas at Austin

"Overall, Tinto accomplishes exactly what he set out to do, moving beyond theory to a call and plan for effective institutional action. And while there are no hard and fast solutions, ultimately Tinto knows that the field of higher education needs an action-oriented approach toward improving student retention. Completing College: Rethinking Institutional Action delivers one that should not be ignored."

Sosanya Jones | The Review of Higher Education

"In Completing College, Vincent Tinto offers a framework for organizing institutional policies and practices that the research on educational attainment and his experience with different types of colleges and universities suggest can positively influence student persistence and degree attainment. . . . Tightly constructed and lucidly crafted, the book opens with a well-researched brief on why college matters to both individuals and the larger society followed by a succinct overview of the four institutional conditions Tinto asserts lead to completing a program of study. An informative text for higher education and student affairs graduate programs."

Journal of College Student Development