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Office of the Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education
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How have UCSC's rates changed over time? After a relatively sharp decline in the early 1990s, 1- and 2-year retention rates have been gradually, but steadily, improving since 1995. The most recent 1- and 2-year rates of 89% and 79% respectively, are campus highs since a tracking methodology was formalized beginning with the 1989 cohort. As retention rates have improved, so have graduation rates. The most recent 6-year graduation rate of 70% for the 1999 cohort is also a campus high, and is expected to continue to improve as a function of improving retention rates. As the graph illustrates, the ultimate graduation rate tends to be higher for cohorts with higher lower-division retention rates. As is also apparent from the graph, most attrition occurs between the first and second, and second and third year. Fourteen percent of the 1999 cohort was lost before their second year, and another 10% before their third year. After the third year only an additional 6% of the initial cohort failed to graduate within 6 years. These data clearly illustrate the importance of lower division retention. Students who leave UCSC in the first couple of years can not graduate from UCSC four, five, or six years later. |
