These include financial, academic and social and personal reasons. The administration has been active in trying to solve these problems. One measure that has been taken is to add a financial counselor to the Oberlin staff to work closely with the students and help them with their problems. They have also worked to help students by strengthening the Student Academic Advising Program and all student support services. Koppes speculated that the problem of retention may lie in whether students are taking too many hours at one time.
Social reasons seem to be the largest factor in the lack of student retention.
One first-year student, who is planning to transfer next semester, said that the Oberlin community is just not enough. We need to have the student see themselves here. Dye said that past studies, specifically the African American retention study, have shown that it is programs such as community service and other associative programs that help lead to better retention. As a result, the staff has been putting more effort into providing students with this sort of community. She has spoken to the staff, faculty, student body, board of trustees, alumni and the enrollment management team and plans to get student government and student organizations involved.