Retention and Graduation Rates

This report presents the annual tables that contain retention, dropout, and graduation rates for first-time, full-time freshmen at the Newark Campus over a ten-year time period. Retention and graduation rates are reported for nine separate groups in Tables 1-9 at the end of the report: Total Freshman Class, Males, Females, Whites, Asians, African-Americans, Hispanics, Delaware Residents, and Nonresidents.

This brief summary underscores the principal results from this year’s data for the Newark Campus overall and for different ethnic groups.

A. Graduation Rates

1) The overall four-year graduation rates for freshmen who entered between 1993 and 1998 range from 51 to 59 percent. However, the four-year graduation rate of 62 percent for the class entering in 1999 is the highest four-year graduation rate of any class since 1991 (data not shown). Note also that the overall four-year graduation rate has increased each year since 1993.

The four-year graduation rates for African-American full-time freshmen who entered between 1993 and 1999 range from 35 to 44 percent, with the 1999 freshmen graduating at the lower end of the range (38%). The four-year graduation rate for Asians during this time period is 42 to 63 percent; the range for Hispanics is 42 to 60 percent. Much of the variability in minority four-year graduation rates can be attributed to the smaller sizes of the entering freshmen classes.

2) Similar to the increase in four-year graduation rates, the class entering in fall 1998 shows the highest five-year graduation percentage (74%) of any class since 1991 (data not shown). Previously, the five-year graduation rate for entering freshmen ranged from 67% to 72%. Table A gives the range of five-year graduation rates for Asian, African-American, and Hispanic students compared to Whites.

3) The total graduation rate among freshmen who entered from fall 1993 through fall 1997, and who took six or more years to earn a degree, ranges from 72% to 74%. Table B shows that the graduation rate for African-American freshmen increases substantially compared to the five-year rates shown in Table A.

Table B: Total Graduation Rate
Six or more years (Classes Entering From Fall 1993 to Fall 1998)

	White	Asian	Afr.-American	Hispanic
Six+ year graduation rate (range)	72-75%	68-81%	64-68%	67-78%

B. Freshman to Sophomore Retention Rates

It is important to note that the overall fall 2002 freshman to sophomore retention rate was 90%. For the past four years, the freshman to sophomore retention rate has continued to remain very high and very stable: 90.0%, 88.6%, 87.5%, and 89.0% respectively. First-year retention in 2002 for African-American first-time freshmen was 87%, the highest retention rate since 1996. The retention rates for 2002 were also very favorable for Hispanics (84%) and for Asians (90%). Table C provides the range of first-year retention rates for different ethnic subgroups since 1993. All groups show consistently high freshman to sophomore year retention.

C. Comparative Data

Retention and graduation rates for first-time, full-time freshmen at Delaware compare favorably to national averages. The University of Delaware, along with hundreds of other institutions, occasionally participates in the University of Oklahoma Consortium for Student Retention Data Exchange (CSRDE). The Consortium collects retention and graduation statistics for first-time, full-time freshmen from member institutions and publishes normative benchmarks. These data are the best national data available for peer comparison.

In the statistics presented below, the University of Delaware is compared with 65 ‘Highly Selective’ public institutions. CSRDE defines highly selective as institutions with entering freshman (Fall 2000) SAT averages higher than 1100. Representative schools in this comparison group include the Georgia Institute of Technology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Ohio State University, the University of California-Berkeley, the College of William and Mary, Purdue University, Rutgers-New Brunswick, and the Universities of Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland-College Park, Massachusetts-Amherst, North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Texas-Austin, Vermont, and Virginia.

1) The freshman to sophomore year CSRDE benchmark retention rate for highly selective public schools is 86.7% in the most recent available national data. The three most recent entering classes at the University of Delaware show average freshman to sophomore rates of 90%, 89%, and 88%. In addition, the University compares favorably to the full complement of colleges and universities who provide data to CSRDE. The average freshman to sophomore year retention rate for all CSRDE schools is 79%.

2) The University also compares very favorably to the CSRDE data on graduation rates. Table D compares Delaware’s most recent four-, five-, and six-year graduation rates by ethnic group to freshmen at other public, highly selective universities (N=65). In the great majority of comparisons, University of Delaware graduation rates for each ethnic category are sharply higher than other comparators, particularly among African-Americans and Hispanics.

Note for Table D: National benchmark data taken from CSRDE National Norms published in 2002.

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