Colleen27
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2007
Just one thing about the graduation statistics. They are usually (almost universal for public schools) given as 6 year graduation rates, not 4 year. A graduation rate of over 80% is nothing to worry about anyway. It seems appropriate given many individual circumstances and transfers.
It's the 6 year rates under 80% I would worry about; as well as the schools with sub 20% graduation rates like these from my area: www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/colleg...-dc-md-and-va/2011/12/13/gIQAnfSVsO_blog.html
6 years may be appropriate for traditional students, but for non-traditional students I think even that is too narrow. A few semesters of cutting back to part time for whatever reason, or a couple issues of classes not being offered at manageable times, and it can easily take that long for any student who is juggling college with work/life.
From what I can tell, graduation rates seem to be primarily a function of selectivity - the most selective colleges have the best rates, and the least selective have the worst. In many ways it is like trying to compare private schools that can cherry-pick their student body with public schools that welcome everyone. Of course when you have a group of incoming freshmen who have all performed well academically in the past and have the intellectual and financial resources to commit to an expensive, demanding educational program you're going to have better results than when you have a mix between those students and the poor, those who didn't perform well enough in high school to get into a traditional university, non-traditional students who are balancing school with work and family, and people taking classes for personal reasons rather than for degree advancement.