Also the website says that 84% of freshman live on campus. Hardly a commuter school.
I think some false numbers are being thrown out here about Grand Valley State. According to the Detroit News the graduation rate is 70%. Not sure where TurnerT is getting numbers from.
(MI resident for the past three years writing) Grand Valley is a well-respected university within the state, is said to have a nice campus (I’ve never been), and has very competitive DII sports programs.
Collegedata: 6 year graduation rate is 70%, and 83% of freshman return for their sophomore year. I suspect the low 4 year graduation rate (33%) has something to do with compiling data from multiple campuses; the Allendale campus 4 year graduation rate for incoming freshman is likely higher than 33%.
It’s not too far from Grand Rapids, which is an interesting small city.
@dadof1 Thank you… A college friend of mine is a Michigan resident and said the same.
US News has the 4 year graduation rate at 31%. College Data and US News have off campus/commuter students at 72%. US News gets its data directly from the schools.
These would be consistent with similar ranked state schools.
^I think the university has a few different campuses in the Grand Rapids area that increases the overall percentage of commuter students. I don’t think the main (Allendale) campus is 72% commuter students since many students from my kiddos’ high school (not within commuting distance) go to GVSU.
And as others have said, off campus is not the same as commuter. At many schools, it is extremely uncommon for upperclassmen to live on campus.
Someone above mentioned that they would be concerned about the accreditation of the school. Don’t worry about that, it is definitely a legitimate school and there is nothing to worry about in that department. As for scholarships, I am attending Grand Valley next year and the atmosphere is great, everyone who I know that goes there is very very friendly, and they have some fantastic programs, including their undergraduate programs. You should definitely look in to it. I fell in love with it during my first visit.
I suggest the OP look at the Common Data Set info for GVSU found on this link:
It is a wealth of information and also shows the 6 year grad rate at 65%.
For that matter, you should scrutinize college Common Data Set documents for any colleges your DD is considering. Common Data Set information is what colleges MUST be reported to the US gov.
https://www.gvsu.edu/ia/
Grand Valley state is very competitive in Women’s lacrosse, was ranked 12th last year in D2, losing only 4 games to some top ranked schools (Florida Southern, Lindenwood, Le Moyne). GV crushed a lot of their other opponents. If it is what this student athlete wants, then it is a good fit for her. Small state schools often have kids at them that don’t have the funds to go full time or right through in 4-5 years. It doesn’t make them bad schools, just not as traditional as big state schools or tiny LACs where students might receive full financial aid or have the funds to pay.
It does seem that GV’s team travels a lot, so consider that when deciding if daughter can miss that much school. One big factor for us when selecting DD’s school was how much sports travel there would be. Because DD goes to school in Florida, the other teams travel to her school, and DD plays the first 10 games (out of 15) in Florida in Feb-March. They are taking one longer weekend trip this year, but not as many 10 hour bus rides as they did last year, and even that one long trip concerned me as DD is in engineering and it will be hard for her to miss class. DD tries to get her schedule to be heavy in the early part of the week, leaving only 1 or 2 classes on Friday, and no labs.
The fact is that somebody goes to these schools that have 35% (or even 70%) graduation in 4 years, and 1/3 of the students are graduating in that time. At Dd’s school, it’s about 60%, but many students take co-op years, there are a lot of foreign students who have a different timeline, some students have to take some time off to build up funds again.
My other daughter is doing an internship next semester so she won’t finish in 4 years either. I still think she’s a fairly traditional student, entered right after high school, wants to study abroad, might need to take some times to work and save. I think she’ll be out in 5 or 6 years, and I’m fine with that, but it doesn’t make for very good statistics.
TurnerT -Grand Valley is indeed a “real school.” If you’re not from the Midwest, don’t comment on things you don’t know about.
84% freshman live on campus
63% graduate 6 years (note kids who transfer out freshman year are counted against that number)
We visited Grand Rapids this year and liked the city.
@Pizzagirl You must have me confused with someone else. I never used the term “real”. All I did was present several indisputable facts about the graduation and the residential living rate.
I accurately used the term “classic residential schools” to describe schools near the OP’s home as a way to compare.
This school would be very similar to Richard Stockton in NJ, and no one here would consider it a residential college. A school where 72% of students don’t live on campus is accurately described as a commuter school, it is not and wasn’t by me a judgement.
I put 'Michigan’into the search box of a college info site and 11 schools came up. Only Michigan Ann Arbor as MSU have higher than average (40% is average) 4 year grad rates. UM is 75% and MSU is 50%. All the rest, even other campuses of UM and MSU, are lower than the 33% for Grand Valley. It just takes MOST students longer than 4 years to graduate. Not really a stat that is worth much anymore if the average 4 year grad rate is 40%.
Oh for heaven’s sake, turnert. Have you ever been to Grand Valley State? I have. There are many off campus apartments. Many. The students we know who went there chose to live off campus after freshman or sophomore year. But there are plenty of students living in the dorms. Plenty.
MPM, it’s a smaller school with some really outstanding departments.
Agree the OP needs to do her due diligence regarding this school and her kiddo. But this is a clinic to a school that was already on their radar screen.
Grand Valley is a classic residential college, Turner.
Turner- USC does NOT [currently] have enough on campus housing for its students- MOST Jr’s and Sr’s live in
appts surrounding the campus. Does THAT make USC a commuter campus?? I think not.
@twoinanddone. Thanks that is really helpful and we did notice about the travel. One of the reasons she is taking AP I to try and have maybe 4 rather than 5 classes during lacrosse season. Academically she is probably a top student at this school which is good for being an athlete too I think. She is worried someone else will get the spot if she doesn’t pursue it hard now.
No. For the sake of comparison, let’s look at UW-Madison where 75% of students live off campus. No one would describe the UW as a commuter school. This number signals the presence of a vibrant rental apartment/ rental house market in the nearby neighborhoods.
I will repeat the advice that our coach gave our kids which is if the kid is not talented enough of playing high level division one, they are better off picking a school first, and then walking on or going the club route. There were a couple of reasons:
1 - Any scholarship money you get will be tied to athletics. If you drop the sport, you lose the scholarship. At the Division Two level, there are many merit or need based financial aid that would not be tied to playing a sport, and the child might be able to get same amount of money via other means.
2 - The turnover of athletes and coaches at the D2 level is huge, chances are that she will not be playing in her senior year, and, if she does, it will not be for the same coach.
3 - Once you are in school, the best interest of the coach and students diverge. The coach is hired or fired based on how many games the team wins, while the student should be studying to improve their grades. The time commitment at a D1 or D2 can be large, and this commitment often leads student athletes to pursue non-rigorous courses of study. Take a look at the majors of the girls currently on the team. If they are all concentrated in “puff” majors like communications, you know there is a problem.
As for Grand Valley State, academically it is a step below the two major universities in states, UM and MSU, and is on par with the regional state schools like CMU, EMU or WMU. However, the campus is newer and more attreactive than most of the Michigan directional schools, and the location is suburban instead of urban. Kids from suburban Detroit will feel more at home there than at the other directionals, and it is popular in-state among kids who don’t have the stats for UM/MSU, but want to go to a modern, clean campus.
The other major advantage that Grand Valley has the local economy. Being far away from Detroit and less dependent on the auto industry, the Grand Rapids area was one of the few metropolitan areas in Michigan that did not crash and burn during the 2008/2009 recession, and it has done very well in the current expansion cycle. See the linked article.
http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2015/06/greater_grand_rapids_metro_are.html
Since the local economy is doing well and supports the university, Grand Valley State has also done well when compared to its in-state peers.