UC Santa Cruz - Retention & Graduation

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University of California
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Retention/Graduation Questions and Answers

Changing majors—an analysis of the 1999 freshman cohort
Comparing the intended major at admission to the one in which a student graduates, this report tracks graduation by division. [More]

Graduation rates and time-to-degree by major
An analysis of third-year students who entered as freshmen and graduated in their declared major, a different major, or not at all. [More]

How does a student's major influence the likelihood that they will be retained and graduate?

With the recent exception of the School of Engineering, UCSC does not admit freshmen applicants to a major at the time they are admitted to the campus. Entering freshmen arrive at UCSC with either a proposed major, based on the box they checked on the UC application, or as undeclared. Because nearly half of all incoming freshmen historically do not know which major they are intending, and some unspecified additional percentage may be intending majors for which they don’t yet know they are not actually inclined toward, it is difficult to track retention and graduation rates by major. Revisions to the academic advising program, which requires students to update their major intent at the end of the first year, will make it possible to better calculate graduation rates by major in the future, beginning with the 2005 freshmen cohort.

The major migration study of the 1996 cohort shows the six-year graduation rates for the 1996 freshmen cohort by division, dividing the entering class into one of the five divisions or schools based on intended major plus the undecided. The table below indicates the percentages of entering freshmen from each division who go on to graduate with a major within that division, who graduate from a major in another division, or who do not graduate from UCSC at all.

Major In/Major Out by Division
Fall 1996 Freshman Cohort

School/		UCSC	Sch/Div	Transfer	Not
Division	N	Grad	Grad	Sch/Div	Retained
ART	175	70.8%	39.3%	31.5%	29.2%
ENG	55	49.1%	21.8%	27.3%	50.9%
HUM	168	65.4%	33.4%	32.0%	34.6%
PBS	358	59.2%	26.8%	32.4%	40.8%
SOC	391	62.1%	41.4%	20.7%	37.9%
UND	652	62.6%	-	-	37.4%

Total	1,798	62.5%	34.4%*	28.1%*	37.5%

* Indicates the percentages of students who entered with intended majors, who graduated with majors in the intended major division, or in another division respectively. Undeclareds are excluded from the calculation.

Another study that attempts to analyze the relationship between major and graduation rates is available in the graduation rates and time-to-degree by major report. This report summarizes the percentages of third-year students who first entered UCSC as freshmen within each major who graduate in their declared major, a different major, or not at all. A summary by division is presented in the attached table; department level detail is presented in the report.

Analysis of non-retained students by major may suggest populations to target for retention and graduation improvement.

Note: Beginning with the 2003 cohort, freshmen applicants who did not indicate a proposed major on the UC application were requested to indicate a broad area or “cluster” to assist with advising and to connect students earlier to academic departments.

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