CSUN University News Clippings

College graduation rates vary widely, study concludes

(June 3, 2009)

By Matt Krupnick
Published: 6/2/09

Colleges and universities have vastly different levels of success graduating their students, even when those schools enroll similar types of students, a new study shows.

The American Enterprise Institute found in a nationwide study released Tuesday that less than 60 percent of freshmen who entered four-year schools in 2001 graduated within six years. The rates ranged from 8 percent — at two schools, in Louisiana and Colorado — to 100 percent at Arkansas Baptist College.

The institute found stark differences between colleges of similar competitiveness ranks. For example, both the poorly performing school in Louisiana, Southern University of New Orleans, and Arkansas Baptist are classified as noncompetitive.

“This variation suggests that there’s something going on at the institutional level,” said co-author Andrew Kelly, a research fellow at the institute and a UC Berkeley doctoral candidate. Researchers did not look into the reasons for the differences, he said.

The study comes a few months after President Barack Obama called on the nation’s schools to improve college graduation rates, which once ranked among the world’s best. Those numbers have steadily fallen over the past few decades.

In California, which posted a statewide rate of nearly 60 percent, colleges experienced distinct differences, as well. Cal State Dominguez Hills, for example, graduated 28 percent of its students, while Cal Poly San Luis Obispo topped California State University campuses at 66 percent.

Although $35,000-per-year Stanford University was best in the state with a 95 percent graduation rate, high tuition did not translate into a graduation guarantee.

Oakland’s Mills College, which also costs $35,000 per year, reported a 57 percent graduation rate, and $25,000-per-year Holy Names University, also in Oakland, graduated just 36 percent of its students within six years.

Stanford generally doesn’t worry about its graduation rates because of the high-quality students it admits, said John Bravman, the university’s vice provost for undergraduate education.

And when students do fall behind, the school counsels them intensively, he said.

Less competitive schools often are in the undesirable position of having few resources to help students who are less equipped for college, Bravman said.

“The realities of those students’ lives are very different from those who are fortunate enough to attend Stanford or Berkeley or MIT,” he said.

“Education is labor-intensive and it is expensive. (Improvement has) got to be a matter of resources and will.”

Publication: Contra Costa Times