Southeastern Louisiana University Transfer Analysis 2004 Cohort Graduation Rates have quickly become one of higher education s front-runners for measuring success. This metric is highly defined and standardized so that comparisons can be made across institutions. The basic definition starts with the students who makeup the cohort; students who are full-time, first-time, degree-seeking freshmen. These students are tracked to see how many graduate within a six-year time frame. However, Southeastern graduates many more students who did not meet this strict definition of the cohort. Students who transferred into Southeastern, students who started in the spring semester or students who started their higher education career as a part-time student will never be a part of Southeastern s graduation rate. Furthermore, those students who started in our cohort but didn t graduate from Southeastern within six years may still have the opportunity for personal success. These students could still be enrolled and take longer than six years to graduate or they might transfer to another institution to pursue a degree. The purpose of this report is to take a look at a group of our students who met the 2004 cohort definition and did not graduate from Southeastern, but transferred to another institution of higher learning. The transfer information came from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). They represent over 3,300 institutions across the nation and 93% of all higher education students in the country. NSC is the most comprehensive site from which to obtain enrollment and graduation data. NSC will provide confirmation of enrollment of students and the names of the institutions where they are enrolled. Only when a student graduates will NSC provide degree and major information. There are 2,137 students in the 2004 cohort. 714 students or 33.4% of the cohort graduated from Southeastern within six years. An additional 26.6% of the cohort are represented by the 569 confirmed transfers. The majority of the transfer students were freshmen and had a cumulative grade point average of less than 2.000. There were 161 freshmen who transferred with 15 or fewer cumulative hours earned. This indicates that a majority of the students that transferred out were in academic trouble when they left Southeastern. The following information is based on transfer students from the cohort.
I. When our students left Southeastern: What was the last Student Classification at Southeastern? Freshmen 308 54.1% Sophomore 84 14.8% Junior 158 27.8% Senior 19 3.3% Cumulative GPA before Transferring: 0.000 1.999 269 47.3% 2.000 2.499 86 15.1% 2.500 2.999 91 16.0% 3.000 3.499 79 13.9% 3.500 3.999 37 6.5% 4.000 7 1.2% Major before Transferring: BS in Nursing 125 22.0% Undecided 88 15.5% BS in Biology 43 7.6% BGS in General Studies 23 4.0% BA in Psychology 22 3.9% BA in General Business 20 3.5% BA in Criminal Justice 19 3.3% BS in Computer Science 18 3.2% BS in Physics 15 2.6% BA in Art 14 2.5% BA in Communication 14 2.5% BA in Management 14 2.5% BS in Accounting 13 2.3% BS in Early Childhood Education 12 2.1% BS in Chemistry 11 1.9% BS in Elementary Education 11 1.9% BS in Industrial Technology 11 1.9% BS in Kinesiology 11 1.9% BA in Marketing 9 1.6% BS in Athletic Training 6 1.1% BA in History 6 1.1% 2
BS in Family and Consumer Sciences 5 0.9% BS Music Education 5 0.9% BM in Music 5 0.9% BA in Sociology 5 0.9% BS in Finance 4 0.7% BA in Political Science 4 0.7% BA in Social Work 4 0.7% AA in Criminal Justice 3 0.5% BBA General Business 3 0.5% BS in Mathematics 3 0.5% BM.Ed. in Music Education 3 0.5% BA in Social Studies Teaching 3 0.5% BA in Elementary Education 2 0.4% BA in English 2 0.4% BA in Liberal Arts Studies 2 0.4% BA in Special Education Mild/Moderate 2 0.4% BA in Art Education 1 0.2% BBA in Business Administration 1 0.2% BA in English Education 1 0.2% AGS in General Studies 1 0.2% AAS in Industrial Technology 1 0.2% BA Kinesiology 1 0.2% AA in Office Administration 1 0.2% BS in Science Education - Biology 1 0.2% BA Speech Language Hearing 1 0.2% Total 569 100.0% II. Where did Students Transfer to? Level of Institution 2 Year Institution 251 44.1% 4 Year Institution 315 55.4% Technical Institute 3 0.5% Sector of Institution Public 454 79.8% Private 115 20.2% 3
Top Ten Institutions Delgado Community College 131 23.0% Louisiana State University 63 11.1% Our Lady of the Lake College 41 7.2% University of New Orleans 41 7.2% River Parishes Community College 23 4.0% University of Phoenix 22 3.9% Southern University and A&M College 21 3.7% Baton Rouge Community College 17 3.0% University of Louisiana Lafayette 14 2.5% ITI Technical College 9 1.6% Nicholls State University 9 1.6% South Louisiana Community College 9 1.6% University of Louisiana - Monroe 9 1.6% Nursing majors make up the largest proportion of student who left Southeastern. Below are the schools that received our Nursing students. The top three schools took in 60% of our Nursing students. Where did Nursing Students Transfer to? Our Lady of the Lake College 32 26% Delgado Community College 27 22% Southern University and A&M College 15 12% Nicholls State University 6 5% River Parishes Community College 6 5% Baton Rouge Community College 5 4% University of New Orleans 5 4% Southwest Mississippi Community College 4 3% William Carey University 3 2% 4
III. Students who Graduated from Another Institution A total of 569 students were verified as transferring to another institution. Of those students we can verify that 149 of those students actually graduated from another institution. These 149 students have a statistically higher ACT average and are older than those transfer students that did not graduate. They also had significantly higher cumulative GPAs and had more hours earned when they left Southeastern than those students who transferred and did not graduate. This represents an additional 7.2% of our initial 2004 cohort. That leaves 416 students who transferred to another institution but have not yet graduated. Degrees that were Conferred to our Transfer Students: Associates 26 17.5% Baccalaureate 100 67.1% Did Not Disclosed Degree Conferred 23 15.4% Total 153 100.0% Top Institutions our Transfer Students Graduated From: Louisiana State University 40 26.1% Our Lady of the Lake College 17 11.1% University of New Orleans 13 8.5% University of Louisiana Lafayette 6 3.9% Southern University and A&M College 5 3.3% Nicholls State University 4 2.6% William Carey University 4 2.6% Louisiana State University @ Alexandria 2 1.3% Louisiana Tech University 2 1.3% LSU Health Sciences Center at New Orleans 2 1.3% Majors of Those Students that Graduated from another Institution: Nursing 14 9.2% Construction Management 8 5.2% General Studies 8 5.2% Business Administration 6 3.9% Management 6 3.9% English 4 2.6% Psychology 4 2.6% Accounting 3 2.0% Chemical Engineering 3 2.0% History 3 2.0% Marketing 3 2.0% 5