<p>U.S. News & World Report shows Pitzer with ony an 81% graduation rate (within 6 years). This probably accounts for Pitzer being ranked as low as it is on that list. Does anyone have any idea why the graduation rate is so low compared with top liberal arts schools (which are well above 90%)? Why do peole leave and where do they go?</p>
<p>I think that number is a bit off actually, at least compared to the rate of this year. US News has old information from last year, hence the acceptance rate being 20-something percent compared to the current 15%.
Second, Pitzer has a good chunk of New Resource students, a program comprised of non-traditional students who have other responsibilities while they get their education. This prolongs some of their graduation.
You should definitely not get deterred from Pitzer as a less than serious academic institution because of these statistics, particularly with its increasing selectivity and the direction the College is going. Talk to anyone who goes there or better yet, visit for your self, and you’ll see this statistic is not an accurate representation of how things are.</p>
<p>Thanks much. Just got back from a visit and daughter loved it. She will likely apply ED.</p>
<p>That’s great to hear!
What do you think she liked most about it?</p>
<p>The open curriculum, the warm weather (we are from Maine), the social activism of many students, the strong sense of community, the consortium (with the opportunities it opens up but also the way it makes Pitzer both small and big).</p>
<p>Jonathan…</p>
<p>My D is also interested in Pitzer though she is junior this year. We are also from the East Coast (VA) and plan to visit some CA colleges in January. What was it that made your visit special and are there any particular things we should see/do?</p>
<p>Plan to do a formal tour of at least one of the other Claremont schools and leave time to tour all informally. We also did a tour at CMC and spent several hours exploring Pomona and Scripps on our own. The five schools are very interdependent with shared classes and thier campuses are all adjacent. The “consortium” is one of the most attractive things about Pitzer.</p>
<p>The reason for the low 6year grad rate is, as Pitzerman has indicated, partly our New Resources Students. They are non-traditional aged college students who do not live on campus, but take part in our activities and classes for credit. They are often time part time students because they may have families, jobs, financial reasons or other engagements that would not allow them to be full time, so it could take up to 8 years to get a degree, compared with a full time student. </p>
<p>In addition to this, Pitzer does not track the students who transfer out. Some schools do that. So if a student leaves after sophomore year and graduates after their junior year or senior year (4 years in total) we do not count that towards our graduation rate, where as some other schools would track when that student graduates from the school they transferred to and count that towards their graduation rate. </p>
<p>And for the fun answer, we just enjoy it too much here that we never want to leave :)</p>
<p>Thanks Panda852. Are the New Resource Students counted then in other statistics? How many are there?</p>
<p>All New Resources Students should be counted in all of our statistics, because they are full time or part time students at Pitzer, the only difference is they are not traditional college aged students. They are involved in clubs and orgs, they work on campus, they hang around campus, they go to classes at the other colleges etc. </p>
<p>I believe there are around 50-60 NRS students in total at any given time. But don’t quote me on that, because I can’t remember exactly, but that number sticks out for some reason.</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick response! Daughter is strongly considering applying early.</p>