82% graduation rate at Northeastern - any ideas why?

I was surprised to see this statistic…it measures how many students graduate withiin six years. Anyone know why that might be?

I found this in the CDS:
https://provost.northeastern.edu/uds/facts/common-data-set/
Look under Persistence.

“Six-year graduation rate for 2010 cohort (question B10 divided by question B6):
86%”

This is for students who entered in 2010 and graduated by 2016.

An 86% 6 year graduation rate is considered to be quite good.

Some students transfer out after sophomore year when the reality of coop/experiential learning sinks in. That is why they emphasize the unique nature of Northeastern. Other students fail out.

Thank you @TomSrOfBoston! I agree, 86% is good and the uniqueness of Northeastern isn’t for everyone.

Also wanted to note - their freshman retention rate is quite high (97%) which is also why I was surprised by the 86% number. But it makes sense now.

@TomSrOfBoston - what do you mean by the reality of coop/exp learning sinks in? Isn’t that a big draw?

@byadg123

This can happen with students who apply to Northeastern as a safety option of sorts and get rejected from their other schools, or students who have it as their only affordable option for various reasons. You’re right, this won’t apply to someone who knows the school even decently well and is big on co-op. Not everyone does as thorough research as people on CC. If you don’t visit or do the research, it’s conceivable that you’d barely notice co-op and think it was a very minor thing. Hard to do, but I’m sure it happens.

@byadg123 As @PengsPhils said. Some students and parents have posted here on CC that after attending the on campus information session or admitted students days that they are turned off by all the talk about experiential learning and coop. This would be an indication that Northeastern may not be a good fit.

One applicant asked here on CC last year if doing coop would help her get a good summer internship. Clearly she had not explored the website or attended these sessions.

Northeastern is not the “traditional college experience”, it never was.

With my daughter’s test scores, NU will be a stretch, not a safety, but at least we know about the coop! Oh well…

Just going by US News, Northeastern overperforms by four percentage points with respect to its graduation rate. That is, students graduate at a higher rate than would be predicted after controlling for other factors.

@merc81 sounds interesting–can you explain a bit?

@jillpnk : Students as they enter college have a statistical expectation of graduation fulfillment that correlates with various factors such as standardized scoring and family income. Colleges, then, after adjustment for these factors, either over-perform or under-perform against this baseline.

Seeing actual examples (from USNWR) may help:

College / Predicted Graduation Rate / Actual Graduation Rate / over- or under-performance

Amherst / 95% / 95% / None

Northeastern / 80% / 84% / +4