State and federal governments spent about $9 million on grants for students who dropped out after their freshman year between 2003 and 2008, according to statistics recently published by the American Institutes for Research.

‘The reason why this data is so important is this tells us that we really need to spend some time and effort understanding why students don’t come back and, more importantly, understanding what colleges and universities can do to help improve those retention numbers,’ said Patrick Riccards, executive director of the American Institutes for Research.

At Syracuse University, 8 percent to 9 percent of freshmen drop out, said Donald Saleh, vice president of enrollment. Just a 1 percent increase in graduation rate could bring in $2 million more in university tuition revenue, he said.

The government spent an overall cost of $45 billion to $50 billion of taxpayer money on education between 2003 and 2008, $9 million of which was spent on 78 percent of freshmen who do not return for their sophomore year, according to the national study.

‘We’re talking about kids, they’re being told you need to go to college in order to be a success, in order to get a good job. Yet in many of these institutions across the country, you’re sending them on to a campus where, if they look to their right and look to their left, only one of them is going to graduate,’ Riccards said. ‘That’s a frightening statistic.’

The study was conducted based mostly on graduation numbers provided by colleges and universities nationwide to the government, which schools are required to submit annually, Riccards said.

The study also found just three in five freshmen will hold a degree six years from now, Riccards said. Keeping a student past the expected four years of college can be financially beneficial for an institution, Riccards said

‘At the end of the day, colleges aren’t in business to graduate our students,’ Riccards said. ‘There’s no incentive for colleges to graduate a student. It’s great for them to have someone there five, six, seven years because they continue paying tuition.’

Seventy-three percent of the original freshman class of 2003 at SU graduated within four years, 82 percent within five years and 83 percent within six years, according to university-gathered information.

‘The transition from high school to college is a very big deal,’ Saleh said. ‘Some students just find that they’re not ready for it, or they’re not ready for it at the institution they chose.’

Lauren Marfo, a fifth-year education major, said she is not surprised by the four-year graduation rate.

‘When I came back here, I saw so many students that were supposed to graduate in May 2010 and didn’t,’ Marfo said of when she came back for her fifth year in the fall. ‘I know a lot of people who changed their major multiple times, so it’s kind of become the norm now.’

The university does not conduct an exit survey of students dropping out, so no official data on why students leave is available. Students have emotional, academic, financial and personal issues that may cause them to drop out, Saleh said.

Greg Victory, director of the Office of First-Year and Transfer Programs, said there are several retention initiatives in place to help new students feel connected to the university and find the resources and community they need.

‘Retention is a really key interest for Syracuse,’ Victory said. ‘One of the things we’re looking to do in first-year and transfer programs is actually try to be that one-stop shop for students, so if they don’t know where to go, they come to us to keep them connected. We are always looking at ways that we can help navigate the system.’

Some programs in place include WellsLink, a program to engage unsponsored minority students, and The Story Project, which attempts to connect SU’s community of first-generation college students.

‘It’s really about rallying all of us who have anything to do with supporting these students and looking for students who seem to be having difficulty, and that could be people in the residence halls who see that or academic advisers or faculty members,’ Saleh said. ‘We get mid-semester grade reports for freshmen, and they’re reviewed by academic advisors and the associate deans.’

jianthon@syr.edu

 

Published on October 18, 2010 at 12:00 pm