<p>I know that the US News rankings should be taken with a grain of salt, but one statistic jumps out at me that I am not sure I understand given all the terrific things I hear about the school. Specifcally, Rhodes retains 86% of its freshman. If correct, then that means it is ranked about 83rd in Fresh retention - a little less then twice as poorly as its overall rank 49. Does anyone have any idea whether this stat is correct and if so why Frosh retention is low compared to its other attributes?</p>
<p>Some schools make more of an effort to accept students who seem to have potential only to find out later that some of those students are unable or unwilling to rise to the rigorousness of the school's academic demands.</p>
<p>I certainly see this as one possibility reason for the discrepancy but I am asking if anyone knows the answer for sure - i.e. is the Frosh rentention rate accurate and if so has the school provided any explanations for it - e.g. drop outs, unsatisfactory grades, transfers, etc.</p>
<p>paintball, as you might expect I specifically asked the question . I found it very interesting that Rhodes lost so many first-years but then lost very few after that (in the remaining 3 or 4 years). The response (highly paraphrased): Rhodes has a few kids every year who come here with applications that suggest they are serious students when in fact they are not. They have come to the Rhodes Country Club , a beautiful place admittedly, to further social rather than educational objectives. They excel at half of the work hard/party hard equation. Unfortunately for them it was the wrong half. Once they (and maybe their parents ) realize that, it's back home to the much cheaper and (hopefully) easier school.</p>
<p>My D has told me her class' experience was about like that with a good many being gone by that first Winter Break.</p>
<p>As usual, I knew I could count on you having the facts. Obviously this is a far better then the opposite conclusion - i.e. students leave because the school doesn't measure up! Thanks again.</p>