Six-year, four-year graduating rates steadily increasing
Joshua Knopp / Staff Writer
UNT’s six-year graduating rate is above national averages, and is increasing steadily.
A new study performed by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that 54.1 percent of first-time students who entered college in 2006 graduated in 2012. According to a recent Board of Regents presentation, UNT’s six-year graduation rate in 2011 was 58.7 percent, up from 57.4 percent in 2010 and 56 percent in 2009.
The university projects rates will increase to 60 percent by 2017.
UNT’s four-year graduation rate is also increasing. According to the same presentation, it was 27.2 percent in 2011, up from 24.7 percent and 24.3 percent the years before.
“The university is indeed trying to help students get through in a timely manner,” said UNT news promotion manager Buddy Price.
Vice president for strategy and operations Geoffrey Gamble said entering GPAs are increasing, but the trend was due to a variety of factors.
“It’s really a whole suit of things that have gone on all at once,” he said. “This institution has set some bold goals for where it wants to go, and it’s going there. It has a dedicated faculty that make it happen.”
Price said he doesn’t know the exact reason for the six-year rates being about 30 percent higher every year than the four-year rates, but guessed that more students were working jobs.
“Part of it is a huge number of kids work now, and absolutely can’t take enough hours,” he said.
Undeclared freshman Ashley Baum said she plans on graduating in four years, but understands that unseen factors could slow the process. Baum said she also plans to work summers.
“I’d be a little bit disappointed [by not graduating in four years],” she said. “But you can’t control everything.”
International studies senior Daniel Garcia will graduate this year as a four-year graduate.
Garcia said he took 15-18 hour semesters and worked throughout his entire collegiate career, working 25-hour weeks.
He said he sleeps four hours a night.
“[College] is everything,” he said. “It’s my main focus right now, [and] has been for the last four years. Everything else was secondary.”
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