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RETENTION AND GRADUATION RATES BY PROGRAM
These data are provided for campus use only, during the program review
and accreditation processes.
Use discretion when interpreting these data for off-campus uses.
Definitions provided below are intended to guide you through these processes,
but if you have questions regarding student's right to privacy or the legitimate
use of university data,
please contact IP&A at 756-2204.
As you review these tables, please read the notes closely, as they explain some of the subtleties involved in this kind of analysis. Here are some of the most important assumptions:
Cohorts of students are identified based on a student's entering class level and enrollment status (e.g., freshman or transfer student). The cohorts include students who enter in either Summer or Fall quarter and who are enrolled in 12 or more units during their first Fall quarter at Cal Poly. Each cohort is labeled according to the year that the students first attended classes at Cal Poly. The tables cover the entering freshman cohorts from 1994 through 1998 and the entering transfer cohorts from 1997 through 2001. This is the most current cohort data available, as Cal Poly will not have complete 2005 graduation data for the 1999 freshman and 2002 transfer cohorts until late Fall 2005.
For the purposes of retention from first to second and second to third year, students are identified with their initial major or program of study. Thus, the percentages reflect their persistence at Cal Poly regardless of whether they remain with their initial major.
For the purposes of calculating graduation rates, however, IP&A reassigns students to college and major cohorts according to their major of record as of the seventh Fall (for freshmen) or the fourth Fall (for transfer students).
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Six years for freshmen and three years for transfer students represent 150 percent of the “normal” time to degree completion – the conventional measure nationally.
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The use of “major of record” at the college or major level makes the graduation rates more comparable to institutions that do not require that students declare a major at entrance, as any student who changes major appears with his/her new field of study. Students who withdraw or drop out are analyzed according to their “major of record” at the time they left Cal Poly.
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In other words, the graduation rate for a college or program reflects the success of all students identified with that college or program at the time when graduation has (or should have) occurred.
| First-time Freshmen Cohorts, 1994-1998 and When you choose one of the links below, you will be
asked to "Open" or "Save As..." an Excel spreadsheet. Data for each major are shown on separate worksheets; select the tab along the bottom of the file to access the appropriate major's data. |
| College
of Agriculture College
of Architecture College
of Business College
of Engineering College
of Liberal Arts College
of Science and Mathematics University Totals |
Undergraduate Cohort Data: Cohorts are selected based on a student’s entering class level and enrollment status. The study currently includes cohorts entering Cal Poly in Summer/Fall 1990 through Summer/Fall 2004.
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First-time freshmen cohort: First-time college students entering Cal Poly during the Summer or Fall quarter and enrolled in 12 or more units during the student’s first Fall quarter at Cal Poly.
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Lower and Upper division transfer cohort: Students entering Cal Poly with college transfer units during the Summer or Fall quarter and enrolled in 12 or more units during the student’s first Fall quarter at Cal Poly. Lower and upper division transfers are defined by their status at the time of admission.
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Retention Rate: Retention rate is calculated for each subsequent Fall only. Students who ‘stop out’ then return are counted in the Fall they return as being retained in their initial cohort.
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Graduation Rate: Graduation rate is calculated on degrees awarded through Summer quarter.
Identifiable Data and Student Confidentiality Issues: Enrollment groupings of five (5) or fewer students (for example, five or fewer students in a particular ethnic or age grouping), are considered “identifiable” and should be replaced with an asterisk (*) when data are provided to anyone outside of your department. You may wish to follow the IP&A and U.S. Census practice and use the notation, “Detailed data are not reported, but are included in the totals,” or “due to privacy concerns, categories of five or fewer are not disclosed.”
Real Numbers or Percentages: Total enrollment in some categories may be small, therefore, calculated ratios and percentages can vary greatly from one time period to another. Use ratios based on small numbers cautiously when analyzing trends or creating projections for your individual department or discipline. When possible, consider using real numbers instead of ratios, and always show the size of the group in any tables.
Aggregate Data: IP&A's role is to extract, aggregate, analyze, report, and plan. With respect to enrollment, human resources, and space data, IP&A is primarily an interpretive and analytical "user" of aggregate rather than transactional data. Thus, our staff depends on other campus offices for data entry and accuracy, so that IP&A can focus on how data should be aggregated, compared, and interpreted across transactions and across functions -- and how this information can assist the University with future planning and resource management. In other words, IP&A does not work with data at the individual level or provide lists!
IP&A provides aggregate information in two ways. The first involves the development of analytical reports, which may be published in print or electronic form, at designated intervals (e.g., quarterly) or upon request by the Office's constituents. The second involves enabling campus users to conduct their own analysis. Thus, we help make data sources available electronically, along with information delivery tools, so that users can design queries that meet their particular needs.
Fall to Fall Comparison: IP&A’s standard practice is to provide Fall quarter data when looking for trends or making comparisons between years. Cal Poly enrolls the most students (including the highest number of new students) during Fall quarter.
