State's graduation rate

[4Q_iu]

Story in the E'Ville Courier about their 'other' high school; USI and their poor 6-yr graduation rate (33%); State's is 42% trailing all iu, purdue and ISU-Muncie.

Courier-Press

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2009/jun/02/graduating-in-six-years/

National Study
http://www.aei.org/docLib/Diplomas%20and%20Dropouts%20final.pdf

Enjoyed the complaints from folks regarding the 'need' to take general education
courses...

[Sackalot]

Got alot of experience with this situation. ISU has increased their graduation considerably in the past decade. But it is still pretty low in comparison to other schools. At least we are significantly higher than USI. Also, that might be the most recent numbers, www.ipeds.org the national website that you can get all information about every school that has any type of federal money (Pell grants, loans, etc.) says that USI has a 28% grad rate per their numbers from last year

[bent20]

It should have improved in the past 10 years. They still take transfers from junior colleges like Ivy Tech, don't they? That should help. Most who don't graduate are going to drop out their freshman or sophomore year.

[Sackalot]

It certainly has improved at ISU over the past decade. The transfers help, but only to an extent. The real issue is connection to the University and the fact that ISU is a "suitcase" college. I truly thinkt that sports programs can have a tremendous effect on graduation rates. Look at Florida, they have (I am trying to remember without looking it up) something like an 84% graduation rate. Sure they have some specific requirements to get into the school and are considered to be a top tier school, but you can't argue that students that attend Florida feel connected to the university and the sports teams a MAJOR part of that.

[ISU09Dad]

My son graduated this spring from ISU in four years and a double major. His experience at ISU has been just wonderful. In fact, he'll return to campus next week to start working on his Masters.

As I've said to friends and family if you are one who is thinking of a mid-major school, close to home, smaller then most in-state universities, offering a challenging curriculum at a reasonable price - for us Indiana State has been More. From day one!

:sycamores:

[Jason Svoboda]

It certainly has improved at ISU over the past decade. The transfers help, but only to an extent. The real issue is connection to the University and the fact that ISU is a "suitcase" college. I truly thinkt that sports programs can have a tremendous effect on graduation rates. Look at Florida, they have (I am trying to remember without looking it up) something like an 84% graduation rate. Sure they have some specific requirements to get into the school and are considered to be a top tier school, but you can't argue that students that attend Florida feel connected to the university and the sports teams a MAJOR part of that.

Sports are a big part of the collegiate experience. Even more, just getting involved will increase graduation rates and it seems like students are apathetic towards getting involved anymore. When I first got to ISU, I was engaged and pretty much had no college interaction outside of my class. My first semester GPA was a 1.7 -- inexcusable and absolutely terrible.

Once the girl and I broke it off, I decided to get involved on campus. I joined a fraternity (Kappa Alpha Order), was involved in Student Government, Union Board and a couple other organizations. From there on out, I didn't have a semester GPA lower than a 3.5. I honestly credit my graduation to getting involved and becoming social outside of the classroom. Not to mention, I grew so much as a person and developed skills that were not strong when I arrived at State - time management, personal communication, etc.