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Santa Clara University

Retention and Completion Rates

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Population

 

Data are as of census and are presented by entering cohort year.

Excludes:

Function

  The Retention and Completion Rates visualization provides an in-depth view of the retention and completion rates for undergraduates and graduates among the selected range of cohort years.

Special Notes

 

Formerly known as Retention and Graduation Rates (HEOA) visualization.

  • No rate is calculated for cohorts for which an insufficient time has elapsed to observe the outcome, and for years in which a program was not active or had no new enrollment.
  • Data are available for the most recent cohort that has had 150 percent of normal time for completion by August 31 of the prior year.
  • The calculation for transfer students is adjusted to account for time enrolled prior to enrollment at Santa Clara; hence the transfer rates are directly comparable to the rates of first-time students.
  • The private Retention and Completion Rates visualization presents the same data as the public version but in greater detail, precision, and granularity. If a user opts not to include year as one of the student attribute levels, then the data are aggregated over time as a weighted average over all cohorts selected by the cohort sliding bar.
  • Students are considered to have received a grant or loan if they received it during the period used for determining the cohort - fall term or full year. 
  • Santa Clara voluntarily provides other information on this graduation rate disclosure, including retention rates, four-year graduation rates, multi-year trends of rates, rates for Cal-grant recipients, rates for transfer student cohorts, rates for part-time student cohorts, and multi-year four-year moving average rates.
  • Entering Cohort Year includes all students whose first term of enrollment in the program occurred at some point during the academic year (incl. summer).
  • The level of precision for completion rates is limited to one year-intervals; programs of short duration may, therefore, have less precise outcome data, e.g. a student who starts in summer of one academic year and completes the program in the subsequent spring has a duration of one year but distributed across two academic years, and this with be counted as graduating within two years’ but excluded from ‘graduating within one year’. Future enhancements will resolve this using term-based level of precision.

HEOA Sec. 488(a)(2) amended HEA Sec. 485(a) (20 U.S.C. 1092(a)): new HEA Sec. 485(a)(4) HEOA Sec. 488(a)(3) amended HEA Sec. 485(a) (20 U.S.C. 1092(a)): added HEA Sec. 485(a)(7) HEOA amendments effective August 14, 2008 (see exception below) 34 CFR 668.41(a)-(d), 34 CFR 668.45, 34 CFR 668.8(b)(1)ii) August 21, 2009 NPRM (revised 34 CFR 668.45)

Source: NPEC: Information Required to Be Disclosed Under the Higher Education Act of 1965

 

General Special Notes

 
  • Name Changes in PeopleSoft - Names may change over time (e.g., academic plans, departments). All data are presented consistently over time, reflecting the most recent name. This may result in some differences from previously reported data and reports.
  • Retroactive changes in PeopleSoft - Retroactive changes are reflected in this visualization (e.g., late posted degrees, race/ethnicity, gender). This may result in some differences from previously reported data and reports.
  • Data Entry in PeopleSoft - Though the Office of Institutional Research conducts regular data audits and corrections, the volume, ubiquity, and persistence of data entry errors exceed capacity. While the overall error rate may be low, they often occur in bursts in a particular program or year. We encourage user feedback when data appear anomalous.

Population

 

Data are displayed as a 4-year moving average and an unduplicated headcount (presented as a percent of total).

Includes: 

Function

 

The Undergraduate Completion Rates 4 Year Moving Average dashboard displays four-year moving averages for retention and four and six-year graduation rates.

Special Notes

 
  • The moving average Tableau visualization adopts the Department of Education's standard of reporting a four-year weighted moving average. This calculation is designed to facilitate group comparison and dampen excessive annual variation arising from small-sized groups. Thus data presented for a specific cohort (e.g. the 2014-2015) includes the students who entered in the preceding three years as well (2013-14, 2012-13, & 2011-12). As a new cohort is added (e.g. 2015-16), the oldest cohort (i.e. 2011-12) is removed.
  • Even a four-year moving average may be insufficient to estimate long term trends with precision - more advanced statistical methods are required, contact institutionalresearch@scu.edu for further explication.
  • Stafford Federal Loan recipients exclude those who also received Pell Grant.
  • Students are considered to have received a grant or loan if they received it during the period used for determining the cohort.

Population

 

Data are an unduplicated headcount (presented as a percent of total).

Includes: 

Function

 

The Undergraduate Completion Rates dashboard displays the four, five, six, and eight-year graduation rates for undergraduate students over the selected cohort year range. Data are presented as an aggregate of the selected cohort years when "Entering Cohort Year" is not selected as a "View by" or "Split by" option. 

Special Notes

 
  • Stafford Federal Loan recipients exclude those who also received Pell Grant.
  • Students are considered to have received a grant or loan if they received it during the period used for determining the cohort.
  • It is highly recommended to select entering cohort year under one of the "View by" or "Split by" options.
  • No differentiation is reported for undergraduates who enter dual B.S./M.S. degree engineering programs; they appear as distinct cohorts under their respective graduate engineering programs.

Population

 

Data are an unduplicated headcount (presented as a percent of total).

Includes:

Function

 

The Undergraduate Retention Rates dashboard displays the retention rate of undergraduates over the selected cohort year range. Data are presented as an aggregate of the selected cohort years when "Entering Cohort Year" is not selected as a "View by" or "Split by" option. 

Special Notes

 
  • Retention for transfers is defined as transfers who are enrolled in the first fall term subsequent to matriculation term.
  • Stafford Federal Loan recipients exclude those who also received Pell Grant.
  • Students are considered to have received a grant or loan if they received it during the period used for determining the cohort.         

Population

 

Data are an unduplicated headcount (presented as a percent of total).

Includes:

Excludes:
  • 'Off' years, as the HERI Freshman survey from which SES is derived, is currently on a biennial cycle

Function

 

The Undergraduate Socioeconomic Status dashboard displays the percentage of students within each socioeconomic class that completes their academic plan among the selected range of cohort years with the corresponding four, five, six, and eight-year graduation rates. Data are presented as an aggregate of the selected cohort years when "Entering Cohort Year" is not selected as a "View by" or "Split by" option. 

Population

 

Data are an unduplicated headcount (presented as a percent of total).

Includes: 

Excludes:

  • 'Off' years, as the HERI Freshman survey from which SES is derived, is currently on a biennial cycle

Function

   The Undergraduate Retention Rates Socioeconomic Status dashboard displays the percentage of students within each socioeconomic class that returns for a second year among the selected cohort year range. Data are presented as an aggregate of the selected cohort years when "Entering Cohort Year" is not selected as a "View by" or "Split by" option. 

Population

 

Data are an unduplicated headcount within the cohort (presented as a percent of total).

Includes:

Excludes:

  • Academic career: Continuing Education, Paralegal
  • Academic plan: Counseling, Psychology & Education Extension                                                                      

Function

  The Graduate Completion Rates dashboard displays the percentage of students within each graduate academic plan that graduates over the selected cohort year range at post matriculation milestones of one to eight years or more, and can be broken down into further categories such as gender and race. Data are presented as an aggregate of the selected cohort years when "Entering Cohort Year" is not selected as a "View by" or "Split by" option. 

Special Notes

 
  • "Normal time to degree" is derived from academic bulletins of the various graduate schools and are not necessarily coded in PeopleSoft as such. PeopleSoft records have been modified to permit evaluation of individual programs.
  • Under combined programs (e.g. JD/MBA), the degrees are awarded independently by each respective school; it is possible for a student to complete one degree and not the other, resulting in differing cohort counts across programs.
  • The combined undergraduate/graduate degree (e.g. BS/MS) program is designed to allow undergraduates to earn a master's degree with one additional year of study. Thus the normal time to degree for these students differs from the allotted six years for a traditional engineering master's degree student.
  • Graduate students are expected to apply to and complete a specific cohort program. Completions assigns graduate students to any and all graduate cohorts in which they have enrollment; the start term is set to the first term of enrollment in the specified cohort.
    • This calculation offers several advantages: data anomalies among admission records are ignorable, deferred enrollment at the time of admission is properly included, and all post-matriculation cohort program changes are tracked and accounted for.
      • As such, graduate students who enter a cohort program after completing a substantial portion of their studies may yield a completion rate less than might be expected, e.g. a counseling MA student who completes the program in one year.
  • BS/MS Programs: https://www.scu.edu/engineering/graduate/bsms-program/
  • Santa Clara graduates who enter a dual B.S./M.S. degree engineering program are reported under
    their M.S. degree program independent of their undergraduate major.

Unlike all other graduate programs, assignment to School of Law programs that award the Juris Doctor degree are based on enrollment duration instead of program at the time of application. This results in students who change program mid-career. Since the normal time to complete a degree differs by program, these changes affect how students are measured in by graduation rate and time to degree. The calculation presented in this visualization incorporates this movement to both account for these changes and still produce reliable, consistent graduation rates.   

 

JD programs at Santa Clara form seven distinct cohorts, in part distinguished by the expected (normal) time to completion: Law Day (three years), Law Day-transfer (two years), Law Evening (four years), Law Evening-transfer (three years), JD/MBA (four years), the JD/MSIS (four years) and the legacy program JD/CMB (four years).

 

A student is assigned to a program at every point in time by majority duration; so a student with two terms enrolled in Law Day and four terms in Law Evening would be classified as Law Evening for outcome reporting. The same student who entered with transfer status, would be reported under the Law Evening-transfer cohort. This calculation excludes summer enrollment, and so there are two terms per academic year.  A student who enters a combined JD program, remains in that program independent of duration. In the case of tied enrollment, assignment is made on the basis of the most recent enrollment. School of Law policy restricts program changes during a student’s first-year.

Santa Clara annually publishes the graduation rate of degree-seeking, first-time, fulltime, undergraduate students. The data are available for the most recent cohort that has had 150 percent of normal time for completion by August 31 of the prior year. Students who are deceased before obtaining an award are excluded from the cohort. Graduation rates include late-posted degrees and so may differ from earlier exhibits.

 

Graduation rates are disaggregated by gender; major racial and ethnic subgroups (as defined by IPEDS); recipients of a Federal Pell Grant; recipients of a subsidized Stafford Loan who did not receive a Pell Grant; and students who received neither a Pell Grant nor a subsidized Stafford Loan. Students are considered to have received a grant or loan if they received it during the period used for determining the cohort.

 

Disaggregated rates are to be disclosed only if the number of students in each group is sufficient to yield statistically reliable information and not reveal personally identifiable information about an individual student. Santa Clara suppresses PUBLIC disclosure of data for any (sub) cohort below the threshold minimum of ten (10) for publication, per the National Center for Education Statistics Technical brief: NCES 2012-151. Santa Clara makes these detailed data available, including disclosure of cohort counts fewer than 10, for internal use only. Contact institutionalresearch@scu.edu prior to any publication.

 

Santa Clara voluntarily provides other information on this graduation rate disclosure, including retention rates, four-year graduation rates, multi-year trends of rates, rates for Cal-grant recipients, rates transfer student cohorts, and multi-year four-year moving average rates. The calculation for transfer students is adjusted to account for time enrolled prior to enrollment at Santa Clara; hence the transfer rates are directly comparable to the rates of first-time students.

 

New in 2018 are completion rates by graduate degree programs. Graduate programs are defined per the academic bulletins of the various graduate schools and are not necessarily coded in PeopleSoft as such. The completion rates for graduate programs are evaluated at post-matriculation annual milestones of one through eight or more years. The normal time to degree value should guide users to which milestones are most informative. Persistent discrepancies between completion rates and normal time to degree should be investigated. Though the Office of Institutional Research conducts regular data audit and correction, the volume, ubiquity, and persistence of data entry errors exceeds capacity. While the overall error rate may be low (often 2-3%), they often occur in bursts in a particular program or year.  For example, there are recent cases of students admitted and enrolled twice in the same programs (e.g. CAAP, ECP); in 1999 and 2000, 32 CAAP certificates were awarded to students without corresponding enrollment records. We encourage user feedback when data appear anomalous.

 

Unlike undergraduate students for whom changing majors is expected, graduates students are expected to apply to and complete a specific program. Thus evaluation of completions for graduate programs is based exclusively on a student’s enrollment in a specific program and subsequent awarding of a degree through that same program. In some instances a graduate student may switch programs post-matriculation (e.g., from weekend MBA to evening MBA).  Completions assigns graduate students to any and all graduate programs in which they have enrollment; the start term set to the first term on enrollment in the specified program. This calculation offers several advantages: data anomalies among admission records are ignorable, deferred enrollment at the time of admission is properly included, and all post-matriculation program changes are tracked and accounted for. As such, graduate students who enter a program after completing a substantial portion of their studies may yield a completion rate less than might be expected, e.g. a counseling MA student who completes the program in one year.

 

Under combined programs (e.g. JD/MBA), the degrees are awarded independently by each respective school; Students in combined programs appear twice, once for each degree completed under the appropriate degree section (i.e., in Business for MBA, and in Law for JD). It is possible for a student to complete one degree and not the other, resulting in differing cohort counts across programs. The duel degree program is designed to allow Santa Clara undergraduates to earn a master’s degree with one additional year of study. Thus the normal time to degree for these students differs from the allotted six years for a traditional engineering master’s degree student.

 

The private Retention and Completion visualization presents the same data as the public version but in greater detail, precision, and granularity. In particular, counts are presented, including counts fewer than 10, rates are calculated to three significant digits, and user selected options support nested combinations of student attributes up to four levels deep (i.e. “view by” and “split by”). Note that entering cohort year is available as a student attribute—if a user opts not to include year as one of the four levels, then the data are aggregated over time as a weighted average over all cohorts selected by the cohort sliding bar (upper left).

 

The moving average Tableau visualization adopts the Department of Education’s standard of reporting a four-year weighted moving average. This calculation is designed to facilitate group comparison and dampen excessive annual variation arising from small-sized groups. Thus data presented for a specified cohort (e.g. the 2014-2015) includes the students who entered in the preceding three years as well (2013-14, 2012-13, & 2011-12). As a new cohort is added (e.g. 2015-16), the oldest cohort (i.e. 2011-12) is removed (q.v. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/moving-average.html)

 

Even a four-year moving average may be insufficient to estimate long term trends with precision—more advanced statistical methods are required, contact institutionalresearch@scu.edu for further explication.