When Selecting a College, Check those Graduation Rates!
June 22nd, 2009When the time comes to purchase a car, the old folks recommend that you give the tires a good kick and that you take a peek under the hood. It is an expression that reminds us to look beyond the shadow and the glitz to what really matters. In the case of a car, the most important element is not how it looks but whether it gets you where you need to go.
Likewise, when it comes to attending college, it is important to remember what the ultimate goal is: earning a degree. As with that automobile, it is imperative that prospective college students look beyond the shadow and the glitz to the substance. In the case of a college education, one of the most important elements is completing your college program.
New Report
With the purpose in mind, we turn to the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and the results of their recent study, Diplomas and Dropouts – Which Colleges Actually Graduate Their Students (and Which Don’t). And we offer directly the words from the Executive Summary:
In the fall of 2001, nearly 1.2 million freshmen began college at a four-year institution of higher education somewhere in the United States. Nearly all of them expected to earn a bachelor’s degree. As a rule, college students do not pack their belongings into the back of a minivan in early September wondering if they will get a diploma–only when.
For many students, however, that confidence was misplaced. At a time when college degrees are valuable–with employers paying a premium for college graduates–fewer than 60 percent of new students graduated from four-year colleges within six years. At many institutions, graduation rates are far worse. Graduation rates may be of limited import to students attending the couple hundred elite, specialized institutions that dominate the popular imagination, but there are vast disparities–even among schools educating similar students–at the less selective institutions that educate the bulk of America’s college students.
In simplest terms, the report notes the incredible “variation in graduation rates across more than 1,300 of the nation’s colleges and universities.” What makes the report so important for prospective students is that the folks at AEI found such variations within colleges of similar admissions criteria and students. Not only did the researchers find that four-year American colleges had a graduation rate of 53% within six years, they determined that rates below 50%, 40% and even 30% were distressingly easy to find.
The report offers a very tantalizing summation statement:
…..while student motivation, finances and ability matter greatly when it comes to college completion, the practices of higher education institutions matter, too.
And as for the impact for higher education in the long run, AEI reports:
…graduation rates as calculated here do convey important information–information that should be readily available to students selecting a school, parents investing in their child’s education, and policymakers and taxpayers who finance student aid and public institutions. We believe that the graduation rate measure included here should be just the beginning of a deeper inquiry into college success.
Schools with low graduation rates are not necessarily “bad” schools. A low graduation rate could reflect any number of factors, including a high degree of quality control. A low graduation rate at a school with a special focus on engineering, for instance, could be a signal of the rigor of its curriculum. Low graduation rates also reflect transfer rates, and students could be transferring to more selective schools out of these transfer institutions, thus depressing their graduation rates.
In general, however, we would argue that low graduation rates are an important indicator that
a given school may not be serving the needs of its degree-seeking students. When schools
that admit similar students have vastly different graduation rates, consumers should wonder
what this implies about institutional practices and quality.
Growing Recognition of a Major Issue
The latest report from AEI further raises questions related to America’s higher education system. Given a pass for many years, the paltry graduation rates of many colleges and universities are only now coming to light.
Students considering an institution of higher learning should give careful consideration to this data and information available from AEI. We certainly agree with the latter judgment expressed by the institute:
Low graduation rates are an important indicator. To us, a poor graduation rate reveals a lack of commitment by the school to provide the necessary supports required to ensure the success of degree-seeking students.
I was also surprised at such low graduation rates when I was browsing through a list of school data. I believed that even the worst schools would have 70%, but no, some have less than 35%. Only the top 50 schools or so have rates above 75%.
So imagine, in a school with 30% grad rate, if both you and your roommate graduate, your room is statistically weird. In your intro to chem class of 250 people, 90 will see a degree. 160 won’t. In your seat, look to the right and look to the left. If you graduate, then math says that your neighbors won’t. It is hard to believe but probability is a strict and true concept.
A low graduation rate tells about not only the commitment of the school but also the lack of seriousness of the student body. Drugs, parties, and gangs are all factors at less great schools that hurt students’ performances. There is that one-in-a-million case of a dropout becoming a multi-millionare for whatever reason (e.g. Bill Gates), but don’t bet on that ever coming close to explaining a 60% drop-out rate. Therefore, if you’re looking for a academically serious student population, I would be very skeptical of any place that had a graduation rate of less than 60%. That means that over 40% of students will goof off, and the chance that you will be paired with someone like that is very high.
By cynte415 on October 5th, 2009