Dropout Nation

By: Alison Miller

Posted: 7/9/09

At a time when a college degree is essential for most jobs, today's students aren't quite hitting the graduation mark, and it might not be their fault.

A study released by the American Enterprise Institute shows that fewer than 55 percent of four-year college students will graduate with a degree within six years.

The report compared 1,300 different colleges and universities, and the results indicated a vast difference of graduation rates among some of the less selective schools that educate the bulk of America's college students.

The study separated and analyzed schools by similar admission criteria and students, ranging from noncompetitive to most competitive schools.

Among the results, Harvard ranked number one among the most competitive schools with a 97 percent graduation rate, and Southern University at New Orleans ranked the lowest among noncompetitive schools with an eight percent graduation rate.

Arizona, as a state, falls slightly below the average with a 52 percent graduation rate.

While the study acknowledges that student motivation affects graduation rates, it argues that education institutions are a major factor as well.

"The bottom line is that students enrolling in a college or university should have a reasonable expectation that they will earn a degree in a timely fashion," the study states.
School's Failure

Mark Schneider, one of the researchers of the study, recently discussed his findings in an interview with College Times.

Schneider recognizes that there are many students who are not earning a degree because of their own personal inabilities. However, he says there are many more students out there who are not getting their degree because of their institutions.

"It's easy to blame students for not being prepared and blame the economy, but we also need to look at the role of institutions," Schneider said.

Schneider said post-secondary education was viewed as a great success for a long time, but now universities need to re-evaluate their programs and try to identify the best practices that work.

"We need to make sure that schools are held accountable for graduation," Schneider said.
Bigger Picture

Morris Okum, a psychology professor at Arizona State University who has done research on retention and completion rates at ASU, has his own thoughts about this issue.

Okum said students and parents should be careful when looking at the results of this study since it did not take into account students who graduated after transferring to another institution.

Okum says that one out of every three students come to ASU with the intent to transfer.

From a school's point of view, "you do not want students to be leaving your institution," Okum said.

However, Okum doesn't consider it a negative if a student attends ASU, decides to transfer and then graduates from a different school.

"ASU could have been a very viable stepping stone toward their success," Okum said.

Okum said more research needs to be conducted that follows students who leave universities to find out what happens to them.

Not only should transfer rates be taken into account in this type of study, but also the many other factors that contribute to graduation rates at universities across the country, Okum said.

"Students are thinking about college in a different way than they did 20 years ago," Okum said.

Nowadays, students are a lot like consumers and integrate their school with other things that they have going on in their lives, Okum said.

Okum says students might have opportunities to work that would affect their school schedule or they may run into personal problems.

"Some students, particularly out-of-state students, don't feel like they made a good social life during their freshman year," Okum said.
Lost, Not Found

Justin Carson, a recent five-year graduate from ASU, ran into his own problems during his years at college.

Carson started out as a chemical engineering major at Penn State University and then transferred to ASU and changed his major to psychology.

Carson said he originally planned to graduate in four years, but says it took him longer since he decided to change his major.

While Carson doesn't blame ASU for not graduating in the typical four-year period, he did find that some classes were harder to complete than others.

"Large lecture classes were more difficult to do well in because you don't get the personal attention," Carson said.

But, overall, Carson said he thinks there are a couple of reasons why students don't graduate in the expected four-year period.

"I think that it's partly ambition, but I think that some of the programs are a little more difficult to figure out what you exactly need to do to get out in four years," Carson said.

Justine Devaine, a student entering his sixth year at ASU, faced similar problems as Carson.

Devaine started at a community college in New York, than became a video programming major for three semesters, and finally enrolled in ASU in the fall of 2005 and became an elementary education major.

Devaine said he doesn't blame the school for the length of time that it has taken him to graduate.

"The biggest problem was that I didn't know what I wanted to do," Devaine said.

However, since he changed his major so many times, he ended up having 55 elective credits that didn't go toward anything. And Devaine doesn't think he is the only one running into these problems.

"I have heard a lot of people tell me, 'Oh I don't really know what I want to do so I changed majors,'" Devaine said.

To solve this problem, Devaine thinks it would be helpful for ASU and other institutions to provide academic counselors, in addition to advisors, that would aid second semester freshman and sophomores.

Since the first two years of school are normally general studies classes, Devaine said it would be beneficial if students really figured out what they wanted to do before they got into the specialized classes.