Quick Highlights:
- Graduation rates can reflect how well a school supports its students. Higher rates suggest effective student support systems.
- High graduation rates often indicate a positive academic environment where students support each other and succeed together.
- Graduation rates should be understood in context, considering factors like admissions policies and student demographics, to accurately assess a school’s performance.
- Graduation rates are just one of many factors to consider when choosing a college. A holistic view is essential for making an informed decision.
There are so many factors to think about when picking a college. Whether going for the first time or returning as an adult, you need to weigh many considerations. College graduation rates are one point that comes up regularly in school research. But why would this rate matter to you? What does it say about a college?
We’ll discuss those questions and more on this page. The importance of graduation rates isn’t obvious at first, but it will become clear why you want to look at this number. In the end, it will be this and plenty of other elements that lead you to the right college.
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Why Graduation Rates Matter
The underlying story with graduation rates is that they can tell part of the story of how well a school supports its students. It stands to reason that a school that offers plenty of support is going to have a higher graduation rate than one that doesn’t. There are many other variables at play here, but that’s the basic concept behind tracking higher education graduation statistics.
Student success rates can be encouraging to prospective students when they are quite high. If most of the people who enter a program are succeeding, you have every reason to believe you’ll do the same. Given the intimidating nature of education, this can be a breath of fresh air. College support and graduation tend to go hand in hand, and you’ll feel like you aren’t alone when attending a school known for helping its students reach the finish line.
When a high rate of students graduate from a school, it speaks well of the academic environment that is in place. Not only is the school likely supporting the students, but they are probably supporting each other. This is a setting where people are reaching their goals and that can be contagious. An overall positive experience in college is likely to be had where high grad rates are found.
How to Understand Graduation Rates
It’s a little bit tricky to calculate a graduation rate. As far as education quality indicators go, this one is popular yet complicated. Not everyone follows the same path or takes the same amount of time to graduate, after all.
Generally, rates are calculated based on cohorts of full-time undergrad students. Metrics that you are likely to see include percentages of those students who graduated within four years, and percentages who graduated within six years. Having these two time frames included allows for a better picture of the educational track within the school. Even if someone takes longer than four years but still gets a diploma, that needs to be measured.
Some Complicating Factors
We already mentioned that calculating college graduation rates can be a bit challenging. In this section, we’ll talk about some further reasons why this is true. You can’t glance quickly at graduation rates and think you understand what they mean, as context is important.
One problem is that different schools have different admissions policies. For example, if one school has an open admissions policy while another school is quite demanding in terms of who gets in, the graduation rate significance is going to vary significantly. The school with open admissions will almost certainly have a lower graduation rate. Does that mean it’s a bad school? No – it just means some students attended who probably weren’t prepared for the challenge at hand.
It’s also necessary to find schools with similar student populations to compare to each other. You can’t just take grad rates at face value and compare them across the board. That won’t lead to any type of accurate analysis. Instead, compare schools with similar missions, populations, academic programs, etc. This will be a far more accurate look at how the school is performing compared to others like it.
More Than Just Percentages
It would be a mistake to lose sight of the bigger picture of your education while focusing only on graduation rates. After all, it’s entirely possible for a great school to have a low graduation rate for various factors. Maybe some of the programs are extremely difficult. Maybe it’s just random fluctuation in student performance that has gone through a downturn. Some of the best schools in the world will be found from time to time to have relatively low completion rates.
There is also the matter of personal preference to consider. One school just might be a perfect fit for you based on reasons far beyond grad rates. You might have an opportunity to join a sports team in addition to studying at the school. Or maybe they have a particularly well-regarded academic program that you can’t find elsewhere. Avoid getting too caught up in this one statistic as it could lead you to make a poor decision.
Should This Matter to You?
Graduation rate significance varies pretty widely depending on who you ask. Some people will argue that this stat is mostly meaningless and can be safely ignored. Others think graduation rates and college ranking should go hand in hand.
Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide if you care about this factor. If you think of yourself as a strong, confident student, you might not be afraid of a school with relatively low rates. You might also look at other stats like college retention rates as indicators of quality. Understanding college statistics will make it easier to determine what you care about, what you don’t, and ultimately what school you are going to attend.
Setting Yourself Up for Success
College completion rates achieved by other students do have some bearing on the experience you can expect at a given school. They are not everything, however, and some factors affecting graduation rates might not really relate to you.
In the end, take in as much information as you can about each school on your radar. Don’t use one metric but rather the accumulation of many metrics to help make your decision. You need to be confident and excited about your pick so be patient and only go through with enrollment when you are sure of the choice. Good luck!