Graduation Rates for Popular Online Colleges

[sanantone]

Here we go again.

Didn't we discuss in a previous thread how this data is flawed yet there is no disclaimer in this thread that these numbers are inaccurate?

These graduation numbers don't count all students!!!

"APUS has more than 28,000 students who have completed our undergraduate programs over the past five years with over 80% of them never utilizing FSA. By failing to present complete data, ED is misleading prospective students."

"Whether the graduation rate posted is 31% or 100%, the rate is unlikely to accurately represent the quality of the institution, because a first-time, full-time student is atypical at an institution like APUS. Working adults make up 89% of APUS’s enrollment, and our students generally do not have the time to attend college full-time."

https://wallyboston.com/college-scorecar...titutions/

"The government only tracks graduation rates for first-time, full-time students who complete degrees where they began, excluding those who transfer from one school to another."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grad...-students/

This is pretty common misinformation I see being spread on the Internet.  Parents & students look at these numbers probably don't know any better than to believe them.

You are incorrect. If you had gone to the College Scorecard website, you would have seen that you can toggle the graduation rates based on whether a student is full-time or part-time and whether they are a transfer student or first-time student. The overall graduation rate that is displayed includes all of those students.

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OMG! Those articles are from 2016! The Department of Education changed how it calculated graduation rates after that year.

No disclaimer is needed! The numbers are accurate and include all types of students. LevelUp is referencing outdated articles. 

[LevelUP]

You are incorrect. If you had gone to the College Scorecard website, you would have seen that you can toggle the graduation rates based on whether a student is full-time or part-time and whether they are a transfer student or first-time student.

I think my original post was a bit too aggressive, I did back off and edited it down to something more reasonable. 

The numbers are more accurate on the new scorecard update.  You do have a point that it can be a useful tool to use.

My suggestion is to check with the official college websites and look at their data as well.

For example WGU
https://www.wgu.edu/student-experience/g...rates.html

The national average is 40% graduation rate for nonprofit, open-admission institutions.  Good to see a lot of these adult non-traditional colleges doing well. 
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/...326.10.asp

[ashkir]

UMPI publishes their graduation rates. IT's done based upon a 6 year cohort. https://www.umpi.edu/about-umpi/common-data-set/

Their data shows a lot like part/full time and year breakdowns. They only rejected 7 people last year for example.

So 2014 graduation is their last full data set:
33% graduated with a Pell Grant covering 100% of expenses.
29% graduated with Student Loans (Stafford)
37% graduated who paid out of pocket
34% graduated overall

[LevelUP]

UMPI publishes their graduation rates. IT's done based upon a 6 year cohort. https://www.umpi.edu/about-umpi/common-data-set/

Their data shows a lot like part/full time and year breakdowns. They only rejected 7 people last year for example.

So 2014 graduation is their last full data set:
33% graduated with a Pell Grant covering 100% of expenses.
29% graduated with Student Loans (Stafford)
37% graduated who paid out of pocket
34% graduated overall

According to Scorecard which uses 8yrs of data:
UMPI Full-time graduation rate for first-time students is 42% and 62% for transfers.  49% overall

Some of these brick-and-mortar community colleges act as feeder schools for other schools so their graduation rate will take a hit when their students transfer out and go to other schools to finish their degrees.

[ashkir]

UMPI publishes their graduation rates. IT's done based upon a 6 year cohort. https://www.umpi.edu/about-umpi/common-data-set/

Their data shows a lot like part/full time and year breakdowns. They only rejected 7 people last year for example.

So 2014 graduation is their last full data set:
33% graduated with a Pell Grant covering 100% of expenses.
29% graduated with Student Loans (Stafford)
37% graduated who paid out of pocket
34% graduated overall

According to Scorecard which uses 8yrs of data:
UMPI Full-time graduation rate for first-time students is 42% and 62% for transfers.  49% overall

Some of these brick-and-mortar community colleges act as feeder schools for other schools so their graduation rate will take a hit when their students transfer out and go to other schools to finish their degrees.

It's not surprising considering that, I found the 62% too! It's pretty cool. UMPI is usually used as people's backup school, not the first choice for brick and mortar. So once they have enough credit and a good GPA I would not be surprised if they transferred to a bigger name for the name.

I am curious of what the CBE graduation rates would be! I wonder if they'd publish those.

[CatsDomino]

TESU and COSC are a bit skewed. Many of their students only take a handful of courses and are then graduating.

Purdue Global is non-profit. They still have small campuses in 5 states for in person classes. That part is odd! Why they have an online law school I don't know. You can't take the Bar Exam is you go to an online law school. Well you can sit for the Cali Bar but nowhere else. It is also ACBSP accredited. The place is such an odd duck. Quack

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It would be interesting to know what FHSU is doing because it has a 91% acceptance rate, and it 11,000 out of their 15,000 students are online. The issue with UMGC might be that it serves the military around the world at satellite campuses. The other numbers for the public universities aren't all that surprising.

FHSU....wow....what??? Did not see those numbers coming!

I'm not surprised at the numbers for FHSU.  They're definitely doing something right because I can remember finding their online program way back in 2008.  Also, check out their tuition for their virtual college, and their undergrad and graduate offerings.  My youngest decided during the pandemic lockdown that he would transfer his CC AS there as a virtual student in their BSCS.  His experience so far has been very positive and, speaking with three of his friends who went to a popular state school for CS, his education is on par with theirs except his labs are virtual.  He'll also come out of school 100% debt free thanks to his PTK and other academic scholarships and still have money for a MSCS left in his college fund.  He's planning to attend ECU online for grad school since we live in NC and they offer a MSCS for about $9000 with in-state tuition.

[Alpha]

I certainly agree that graduation rate, alone, isn't a great descriptor of quality.  However, I think it might say something about whether a school is predatory or not.

[sanantone]

It's good to hear that FHSU is working well for young students because young students typically struggle in online programs. It's also good to hear that UMPI is working well for adult learners. I might start recommending those schools more often. FHSU's online degree offerings are pretty good for a school its size.