<p>Today we were at Westminster and asked about the 76-79% retention rate. She said it was because U. of Utah is down the street and they have quite a few more majors and the kids decides that they want a major that they don’t offer.</p>
<p>Be sure to distinguish between freshman retention and six-year graduation rate.</p>
<p>“When students leave a school, they’re not asked to fill out a survey explaining their reasons …”</p>
<p>They are at, at least, one school. The most common reason given to our D1’s school is the general “It’s not what I expected” which isn’t very much help. :(</p>
<p>“Each school’s common data set (reported to the government each year and posted by law) …”</p>
<p>If we could just get the word out to schools that don’t post the CDS…</p>
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<p>Yes, they are different … but, based on the data I cited, you get nearly the same patterns regardless. Very selective schools generally have higher rates than less selective schools, for whatever reason.</p>
<p>So you really need to compare apples to apples. A 75-80% retention rate (or graduation rate) would be rather low for highly selective, private, 4 year institutions … but not for most schools. Nationally, about 1 in 3 students leave after the first year; fewer than half graduate within 5.</p>
<p>“* A 75-80% retention rate (or graduation rate) …*”</p>
<p>As tk notes, few schools will have the same freshman retention rate as graduation rate (most will be significantly different due to transfers at the end of the second year, and a few leaving later), so do be sure to compare like rates.</p>