To Raise Graduation Rate, Colleges Are Urged to Help a Changing Student Body

Parent Cafe
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<p>To Raise Graduation Rate, Colleges Are Urged to Help a Changing Student Body
By TAMAR LEWIN
New York Times
January 24, 2013</p>

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According to the 2012 survey of first-year college students by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, students at four-year institutions significantly overestimate their likelihood of completing college on time. About 8 in 10 said they expected to graduate from their institution in four years, but national statistics show that only about 4 in 10 do so.

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<p>The students should use the <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1450001-college-graduation-rate-calculator.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1450001-college-graduation-rate-calculator.html&lt;/a> of HERI that has been discussed here.</p>

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<p>Related story:</p>

<p>[Helping</a> Degree Seekers Finish What They Start - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/helping-degree-seekers-finish-what-they-start/]Helping”>Helping Degree Seekers Finish What They Start - The New York Times)</p>

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<p>Perhaps some/many of those students should not be going to “college” in the first place. Maybe they really don’t want a degree. (Gasp!)</p>

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<p>Something needs to change. Half of Oregon’s college students never graduate. At the risk of sounding like my cynical self – I think some of this handwringing is due to the loss of revenue when students dropout.</p>

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<p>Public schools would not be worried about the loss of revenue from dropouts, since they provide a net subsidy to most students (the in-state ones who have discounted tuition). But from the state government’s point of view, subsidies on students who eventually drop out are mostly wasted compared to subsidies on students who graduate and (on average*) end up contributing more to the economy than a dropout.</p>

<p>*Gates/Jobs/Zuckerberg/etc. are extreme outliers among dropouts – and it is likely that some people who leave college to do similar but unsuccessful startup ventures just go back to school and finish their degrees.</p>