A publication designed to facilitate campus-wide communication about assessment and acountability activities. Published by the Office of Institutional Assessment Comparing Persistence and Graduation Rates Among Dissimilar Institutions Much of the difference in persistence and graduation rates among institutions can be attributed to characteristics of the institution itself and are not necessarily a result of anything the institution actively does to retain students. Highly selective institutions such as Harvard and Yale by their very nature retain and graduate more students.
Residential colleges retain students more than commuter institutions.
And the list goes on. Results showed a wide disparity between actual and predicted rates for many institutions. Table 1 includes a small sample of the 1,063 institutions included in the retention study. The University of Idaho and Idaho State University also had retention rates that were lower than expected, though the difference was smaller. Alverno College, noted nationally for its student outcomes focus, ranked close to the top.