<p>Hi!
We had a friend of my husbands tell us that the OOS undergraduate retention rate is low. Is there anywhere I can go to see this percentage and send it to him. I am hoping he is wrong!! Thanks!!</p>
<p>I have not heard that at all. Hopefully someone can find where retention rates are shown…</p>
<p>I don’t know what the OOS rate is, but the overall rate can be found in a place like the National Center for Education Statistics’ College Navigator tool: <a href=“College Navigator - The University of Alabama”>College Navigator - The University of Alabama;
This tool is a great way to compare like with like, without having to search each college’s website for similar info.
Don’t be fooled by ‘low’ numbers. There are a huge variety of reasons people don’t graduate in 4 years, etc.</p>
Even if such a number was published, it would be misleading as not all OOS students are in the same boat so to speak. UA has admitted in the past that the lowest freshman retention rate is for OOS students from nearby states who are not part of the Honors College or a fraternity/sorority and do not have a large scholarship. Such students might transfer because of cost or because many of the high school friends stayed closer to “home” and they want to be with those friends.
The students with the highest freshman retention rates tend to be OOS students from far away states who are in the honors college and/or a fraternity/sorority. Such students tend to be very independent and realize that they will have to go out and make new friends.
Public universities do not tend to have the best freshman retention rates or 4/6 year graduation rates as many students may attend and decide college isn’t the right thing for them at this time or they find that they can not afford to attend a university, especially one not within a commuting distance from home, for 4+ years.
Did he just make that up? Is he just assuming that?
I agree with @SEA_tide that not all OOS students are in the same situation. On The UA Parents facebook group, there are some OOS full-pay, non-scholarship parents who are struggling to pay for all the costs. Some seemed to have wishful thinking or had hoped that former-spouses would help pay. I would imagine that some of their kids won’t be returning to Bama, even tho they would want to.
I know of one OOS family that has an outstanding Fall bill. (they had a job-loss.) Their child can’t register for spring’s classes with that balance, and likely will not be returning for spring. This isn’t something that any school can control…it happens everywhere.
Every family typically has 2-4 financial hiccups each year that they didn’t anticipate…major car or home repair, dental work, etc…or more serious (job loss, marriage breakup)…and any one of those can make the difference if the family had “closely determined” their college budget.
At many state schools, finances are often a hurdle that cause some students not to return. This also happens for instate students. We see on the non-UA forums here on CC, kids posting that they have to transfer because they can’t afford their schools.
I am not sure where/why my husbands friend thinks OOS retention is low…I am glad I have y’all to clear things up! Great info everyone!!
http://viewbook.ua.edu/quick-facts/ According to this official source, UA’s freshman retention rate as of this Fall 2014 was 87%. I am sure that there are other schools with a higher rate, but that is not bad, not bad at all.
For some reason, many people who know little about UA, and even some of those who have attended UA, don’t have their information correct. My brother was once told by a Troy State admissions counselor that UA had less stringent entrance requirements than Troy State, which is ridiculous. The roughly 55 per cent acceptance rate and the contrast in the average test scores between the two schools show that one to be inaccurate. Another mis-perception is that UA is not “diverse.” I think the biggest mis-perception is that the majority of students are Greek.
What I was trying to figure out was on payscale.com the graduation rate in general was 67% but I had no context of that!! Some Ivy leagues I looked at were 94 and 95% which made me even more curious. There was no real explanation where they got that figure from???
Universities can report transfer out rates (it’s optional), which can be found at College Navigator.
(based on 2013 data)
Auburn University 22%
Florida State University 7%
The University of Alabama 22%
University of Florida 3%
University of Georgia 6%
(UF, FSU, and UGA all have around 88% to 89% in-state students).
I wanted to include Ole Miss, since they have a high percentage of OOS students (like UA), but they don’t report transfer rates.
The average at a 4 year public institution seems to be 11% to 12% (4 to 5% at private not for profits).
Most publics do not have a high OOS population. Most publics are dealing largely with instate commuters.
There are going to be some transfer issues when dealing with OOS students at public univ…many times it’s a financial issue. I am very surprised to see how many rather modest-income parents are taking on Plus loans to cover their child’s costs to attend an OOS public. I know that some of these families have these “quiet agreements” that the child is going to pay back some/most/all of that debt. 
I think after the first year or two, there is a realization that the borrowing cannot continue, particularly if the student is pursuing a major/career that cannot justify much/any debt.
Another thing I’ve noticed, not just at Bama, but here on CC. There are people who think, “oh, I didn’t get much scholarship money coming in, but if I do well, then the school will give me a nice award.” That doesn’t happen.
@mom2collegekids could you contact me at micmerchaskef@aol.com I have a question. Thank you!
@mom2collegekids
It’s at aol
Thanks!
Gator88…, those figures are for out of state students only correct? Only 13 per cent of all freshman who entered the Fall 2013 class left, so I am assuming your figures only refer to out of state students.
@Atlanta68 Those are for all students that transfer out “within 150% of normal time to completion”, which I’m assuming is 6 years. It’s similar to how they calculate the 6 year graduation rates. So folks that transfer out after 2, 3 or more years would be included. In fact, that 22% transfer rate is one reason UA’s 6 year graduation rate is 67%.
A lot of factors could come into play to drive up your transfer rate (as compared to UGA or UF). Two that come to mind are a high number of OOS students, and (since UA offers a large number of merit scholarships) students that lose merit scholarships due to academics come to mind. Which are all related to cost. UGA and UF (with low in-state tuition and hope/bright futures scholarships) would be far less expensive (as compared to an OOS student at UA).