College readiness. College readiness is the degree to which students are prepared for college and academic life (DeAngelo & Franke, 2016).

Developmental advising: Developmental advising is the collaboration between the advisor and advisee (Grites, 2013). 

Framework: A basic structure underlying a system, concept, or text. Frameworks can be employed to leverage multiple theories. 

High-risk students:  High-risk students may have insufficient grades and may not be prepared for college-level work (Espinoza & Genna, 2018; Sriram, 2014).

Intrusive advising: Intrusive advising, also called proactive advising, is a direct relationship between advisor and advisee. Intrusive advising involves consistent communication and engagement beyond course selection (Donaldson et al., 2016; Rodgers et al., 2014).

Persistence. Persistence is the successful completion of each semester with a 2.0-grade point average or higher (Hatch & Garcia, 2017). Persistence also measures those students who enrolled in the fall and return in the spring semester.

Prescriptive advising: Prescriptive advising is an authoritative approach whereby the advisor instructs the student on what to do  (Donaldson, McKinney, Lee & Pino, 2016).

Retention: Retention measures students’ consecutive enrollment from fall to fall (Cole, 2017; Collier, Griffin & Wei, 2017; Gale & Parker, 2014). 

Theory: A system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained. Theories can be utilized as part of a framework.

Sense of belonging: The sense of belonging is a student’s connection to the overall institution or a sense of comfort to the institution (Karp, Hughes & O’Gara, 2010).

Social integration: Social integration refers to a students’ motivation to join an organization or club. Also, social integration addresses the relationship between students and other peers (Bitew, 2016; Davidson & Wilson, 2013; Lancaster & Xu, 2017). 

Student Athlete: A student athlete is a participant in an organized competitive sport sponsored by the educational institution in which the student is enrolled. Student-athletes are full-time students and athletes at the same time. Colleges offer athletic scholarships in many sports.

Student Retention: Sometimes referred to as persistence, is of increasing importance to college administrators as they try to improve graduation rates and decrease a loss of tuition revenue from students that either drop out or transfer to another school.