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Institutional Research
Santa Clara University

Time to Degree

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Program Review only

Population

 

Data are as of census and are presented by the graduating class year.                                                                                              

Includes:

Function

  The Time to Degree visualization provides an in-depth view of the typical amount of time for students to complete undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Special Notes

 
  • Reliable entry dates for some graduates whose admission records were not migrated to PeopleSoft in 1999; these records are excluded from this analysis. The cumulative total excluded from this report numbers fewer than 50.
  • Time to degree for transfer cohorts is adjusted so as to be directly comparable to a first-time cohort (i.e. each transfer student’s record is adjusted to account for ALL time since entering tertiary education).
  • Specific academic plans, programs, or majors indicated on the time to degree visualization refer to the academic plan, program, or major a student actually completed as part of their degree, and may differ from academic plans, programs, or majors declared earlier in their career at SCU (e.g., at the time of admission).
  • Includes both active and discontinued programs. Some discontinued programs do not have an assigned normal time to degree value in PeopleSoft; missing values have been imputed.
  • Summary measures include the mean number of terms to degree and range of the 5th to 95th percentile-blue bar. For most uses, the median is the preferred measure of time to degree. For graduate programs, the middle 50th percentile range is also displayed (the interquartile range marked by the 25th and 75th percentiles-green bar). This range is excluded from the undergraduate programs as it is too narrow to be useful.
  • Single/Multiple majors are segmented to ensure commensurate comparisons in graduating undergraduate cohorts.

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

 

Years are converted to terms for greater precision.
Data are a count of academic plan: majors.

Includes:

Function

 

The Undergraduate Awards by Cluster dashboard displays the distribution of the time to degree of single and multiple academic majors for each cluster by quartile, average, and median. Additionally, the dashboard marks the percentage of degrees awarded in each cluster that are early, on-time, and late. The Count of Majors view provides a count of single and double academic majors by cluster for the selected time period.

Population

 

Years are converted to terms for greater precision.
Data are a count of academic plan: majors.

Includes:

Function

 

The Undergraduate Awards by Plan within Cluster dashboard displays the distribution of the time to degree of single and multiple academic majors for each plan within each cluster by quartile, average, and median. Additionally, the dashboard marks the percentage of degrees awarded in each plan within each cluster that are early, on-time, and late.

Population

 

Years are converted to terms for greater precision.
Data are a count of graduate awards.

Excludes:

  • Common MA conferred by the Graduate Theological Union                                                                                         
  • Degree type: Juris Doctor and JD combined programs - pending clarification by the Law School

Function

  The Graduate Awards by Program within Cluster dashboard displays the distribution of the time to degree of graduate awards within each cluster by quartile, average, and median.

Special Notes

 
  • Law admission records prior to the academic year 2000 are incomplete; assignment of students as new or transfers is missing.
  • Unlike undergraduate students for whom changing majors is expected, graduate students are expected to apply to and complete a specific program. Thus the evaluation of time to degree for graduate programs is based exclusively on a student's enrollment in a specific program and subsequent awarding of a degree through that program. In some instances, a graduate student may switch programs post-matriculation (e.g. from weekend MBA to evening MBA).
    • Time to degree assigns graduate students to programs actually completed; the start term is set to the first term of 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.
  • Graduate programs are defined per 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.
  • The Jesuit School of Theology is included in this report.  These data are still in the process of conversion as JST data systems are being integrated with Santa Clara systems (i.e., PeopleSoft). For completions rates, a year for JST programs is defined as four terms; this accounts for winter intercession, even though JST operates on a semester calendar.

Population

 

Years are converted to terms for greater precision.
Data are a count of graduate awards.

Includes:                                                                                      

  • Degree type: Juris Doctor and JD combined programs

Function

  The Juris Doctor Awards by Program dashboard displays the distribution of the time to degree of Juris Doctor awards by quartile, average, and median.

Special Notes

 
  • Law admission records prior to the academic year 2000 are incomplete; assignment of students as new or transfers is missing.
  • To accommodate the internal movement of students among JD cohorts required by The Law School, for reporting purposes, students are assigned to the cohort in which they graduated or were most recently enrolled (for non-graduates).  Students are assigned to a cohort start term based on the term in which they matriculated to any JD programs.