It is very often seen that most college students leave their college and do not return to the same college for their second year. Most of the graduates who have passed exams like SAT and other exams do not join college or they tend to move to another college after their first year as freshman. Reasons being for such a trend are financial troubles, change in subjects, academic problems, change of heart and home sickness. Out of every 3 freshmen, 1 does not return to the second year in college. This trend or number is common which not only tell about the American students but also about the colleges and universities.
A low retention rate of the college or university for returning students would signify that the students are not happy with the college or are not satisfied with the infrastructure or academic system. A high retention rate would signify the opposite for such universities. A college scoring high on this aspect would mean it has achieved the trust of the students and has successfully provided them what they were looking for. It is an achievement for a college or university to have a high retention rate of freshman.
The average rate of retention of freshman is 75 percent in US according to a survey of 1365 US colleges and universities. The Columbia University along with the Yale University has been able to gain top ranking in this survey. They have successfully been able to retain 99 percent of their first year students. The schools which rank in the top 20 on this survey were also listed as the best colleges in US. Amherst College, University of Chicago, Princeton University, Stanford University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Pomona College and a few others have all retained around 97 percent and more of their first year students.
Other universities like the Pattern University of California and the Ashford University have a low retention rate of freshman. Only 20 percent of the first year students returned to Pattern University for their second year in the year 2010-2011 while 42 percent came back for Ashford University. Although these universities do not even require the students to sit for any competitive exams like SAT to get admission and around 90 percent of the applicants get entry into the college, they are not successful at retaining the students. Thus retention rate of students for a college speaks volume and can act as a merit as well as demerit for the college or university.
