Hartwick College is now offering a three year degree, according to a story in the New York Times, resulting in over $40,000 in savings. This story in combination with President Obama's speech yesterday which noted the low levels of college persistence ("half of the students who begin college never finish") got me wondering about current trends.
ACT, Inc. released their 2008 findings in January of this year which indicate disturbing trends on this front:
- Retention rates into the second year of study are on a declining trend:
- "A total of 66 percent of first-year college students returned to the same institution for their second year of college in the 2007–2008 academic year, the lowest percentage since 1989. This figure is down from 68 percent in 2006–2007 and 69 percent in 2005–2006."
- Retention rates for 2-year public school students are at an all-time high:
- "The exception to the current downward trend is two year public colleges, with retention rates actually rising at these schools: Fifty-four percent of students at two-year public colleges returned for their second year in 2007–2008, up from 51 percent the previous year."
- Retention rates vary widely by school type:
- "Retention rates vary widely among different types of schools. They remain significantly higher at four-year schools (71 percent) than at two-year schools (54 percent), as has been the case historically."
- "In addition, four-year private colleges continue to slightly outpace public schools (private – 73 percent; public – 71 percent), although the gap between the two is narrowing."
- Nevertheless, nearly all four-year institutional categories have experienced declines in retention over the past two years or more.
- For completion rates, defined as earning bachelor's degree in five years or less, ACT published the following rates for 2008:
- BA/BS Public had completion rate of 40.3% (vs. lowest rate of 39.6% over last 25 years)
- BA/BS Private had completion rate of 56.1% (vs. lowest rate of 53.3% over last 25 years)
Here are the summary tables.
An interesting follow-up to this study would be to track the students that didn't return to the same school for their second year to analyze the various paths that they may have taken (e.g., transfer to other school, put school on hold to work full-time, etc.)
Related stories
- Christian Science Monitor: A push to boost college graduation rates (December 3, 2008)
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