Area Colleges Improve Graduation Rates but Much Work Remains

Outside of price tags, few numbers dampen the enthusiasm of parents faster than graduation rates. Ask the average parent of a college-bound high school student what percent of college freshmen finish their undergraduate careers in four years, and most will settle on numbers in the 70 to 75 percent range. Probe a little further into six year graduation rates, and parents will chuckle, “Shouldn’t everyone be about finished by then?”

In reality, about 56 percent of the 1.2 million freshmen who entered college in the fall of 2001 graduated in six years, and the average four-year graduation rate is much lower--50 percent at private colleges and 29 percent at public institutions. If you’re an underrepresented minority (URM) student, the figures are even grimmer. Only about 40 percent of minority students earned a bachelor’s degree within six years.

Among local colleges and universities, six-year graduation rates are largely above the national average. In a sample of some more popular area college destinations, these numbers range from Georgetown and UVA where about 93 percent graduate in six years to Virginia Commonwealth University where only 47 percent of students graduated in the same period.

But look on the bright side. Because of dedicated efforts on the part of concerned colleges and universities, rates of graduation have been steadily improving over the past five years. Local gains may be found at Christopher Newport University, which went up by 15 percentage points as well as at Towson University and the University of Maryland where six year graduation rates rose by 10 and 11 points respectively.

For minority students, the highest rates of graduation are also found at the University of Virginia (90 percent), closely followed by Georgetown and the University of Richmond (88 percent). Greatest improvements were shown by George Mason University and Towson where the rates of minority graduation went up 16 and 17 points, as well as by Loyola and American University where URM graduation rates rose by 15 points.

Using data from College Results Online—a web-based tool that provides comprehensive information on college graduation rates by institution—the following chart compares area colleges and shows how much improvement has occurred both overall and among underrepresented minority students at each institution:

College or University	Overall 6-year Completion		URM 6-year Completion
	2002	2007	2002	2007
American University	65.8	73	59.5	74.8
Catholic University	65.3	74.6	52.9	60
Christopher Newport Old Dominion Univ	36.4 41.1	51.5 48.5	36.3 39.6	48.8 46.1
George Mason	65.3	74.6	46.5	62.2
George Washington	73.2	78.1	60.2	71.4
Georgetown	93.8	93.4	87.8	88
Goucher College James Madison Univ	68.7 78.3	66.9 81.2	67.9 68.9	58.1 73.5
Johns Hopkins Loyola of Maryland	87.8 79.3	90.4 82.8	82.9 69.8	86.9 84.9
Mary Washington	69.7	75.7	53.5	64.8
Richmond St. Mary's College	82.2 80.8	86.3 82.7	75 82.5	88.1 70.2
Towson University	56.6	66.4	47.3	64.4
UMBC	53.3	60.5	54.2	63.5
UMD-College Park	69.1	79.9	58.1	69.4
UVA	91.8	93.2	87.7	90.1
Virginia Commonwealth	39.4	46.7	39.7	43.1
William and Mary	90.6	91.5	89.2	88.4

Although most colleges have improved overall graduation rates during the past five years, much work remains, particularly for minority students. Reports released by the Education Trust over the past few days address these issues and suggest that graduation rates among all students improve most where concerted effort is made.