<p>While I am in the process of finalising my university I have come across the graduate retention rate. I think the meaning of this would be the no. of students succesfully completing undergraduation. My question is as follows:</p>
<li><p>I would like to know the % of students enrolled in freshman year vs the students completing their undergraduation in Rose Hulman, Georgiatech and RPI.</p></li>
<li><p>In the above universities how many complete in 4 yrs and 5 yrs?</p></li>
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<p>Please help me with the answers. I tried looking into asee.org and could not find it. Thanks</p>
<p>The freshman retention rate is the percentage of students that return for sophomore year after freshman year. It's an easy number to find, as colleges report it (check the college's website or any college data site).</p>
<p>Freshman -> graduate is a little more difficult to find and more complicated to calculate.</p>
<p>Also, calculating the percentage out in four years will be misleading. If a student Co-Ops at Georgia Tech, that's automatically a five year degree, but the student worked (and was paid) for half that time. A school with a higher percentage of non-engineering degrees will be closer to 4 years, a school that more readily accepts AP credits will be closer to 4 years, a school that has a lot of double majors will be closer to 5 years, a school that accepts more 3/2 students will be closer to 5 years, etc.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, it all depends on your situation. If you come in with 30 hours from AP courses, take classes in the summer, take heavy course loads, and course scheduling works out, you could finish in 2 years. </p>
<p>Come in with no AP courses, change majors 3 times, fail a few class, and take light course loads, and it could take you 6 years to graduate. </p>
<p>All schools post it on their admissions website.</p>
<p>Brochures, school website and tour guides will give you the shiny side. There is nothing like data to paint a picture, so long as one considers all factors.</p>
<p>The American Society of Engineering Education has a fabulous database - but its hard to find on the internet.</p>
<p>=enter or select the college you are interested in.</p>
<p>choose "class participation", or "program by class" from the left side of the screen, to see data by major, year, and demographic. This will tell you about retention from Freshman to Sophomore and shifting from major to major (ex WPI starts with 100 robotics majors, decends to 3 in senior year and graduates one. What does that tell you?)</p>
<p>Also check "degrees awarded" the next tab down. </p>
<p>The ASEE data is great for checking retention, male female ratios, the flow between majors, the proportion of students taking 5 years, and impact of 3/2 programs. </p>
<p>Example: Rose Hulman Mech Eng; Freshman 152, Soph:86, Junior 117, Senior 150. Half left Mech, and 25% took 5 years.</p>
<p>But as with all data - don't take it too seriously, just more seriously then shiny brochures.</p>
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Brochures, school website and tour guides will give you the shiny side.
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<p>Agreed. But, hard to paint a rosy picture with objective facts, like average SAT scores, average GPA, and freshman retention rate. Those factors are calculated the same way for every school and are objective.</p>
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Example: Rose Hulman Mech Eng; Freshman 152, Soph:86, Junior 117, Senior 150. Half left Mech, and 25% took 5 years.
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<p>That's just a guess assuming steady state. Assuming those numbers, Rose Hulman could have had a large number of students transfer in from a 3/2 school, with some classified as Juniors and some as Seniors. Further, the second year slump could be partially due to a large number of freshman that take less than 30 hours in their first two semesters.</p>
<p>For those getting turned off from WPI's robotics program right now, just know that it is a new program, meaning that most upperclassmen/graduates did not have a chance to declare it as their major or enter the program considering they had already completed coursework in it. It is an amazing program that began in the last couple years.</p>