As Ohio State’s admission standards continue to grow, so does the graduation rate.
According to university officials, OSU freshman-to-sophomore retention rate is at 90 percent, while the graduation rate is at an all-time high of 71 percent.
The graduation percentage refers to students who graduate in six years or less, which is the national reporting standard for all universities. This is a significant increase from the 56 percent rate of five years ago.
“This is an extraordinary leap for us, especially when one considers that the university implemented competitive admission standards on the Columbus campus in 2003,” President Karen A. Holbrook said in a statement.
Many departments, and OSU as a whole, have made a clear attempt during recent years to increase their academic help to students. This is apparent from the increase in the variety of first-year student programs.
U.S. News & World Report, which does a detailed ranking of many aspects of universities, has mentioned OSU’s First Year Experience as a program that helps students early on in there college experience, university officials said.
One department that has jumped on the first-year student experience bandwagon is engineering. According to its Web site, the recently created First Year Engineering program offers students “practical, ‘hands-on’ engineering experience through project based design courses.” The two-course sequence is an introduction to basic engineering skills and the engineering field in general.
Beginning in 2001, approximately 1,000 freshmen fill up the classrooms of First Year Engineering every year, and program coordinator John Merrill Ph.D. said he has seen great results.
“The students really like it,” Merrill said. “It’s a lot more practical, less theoretical. They get the feel for what engineering is all about.”
The success Merrill references can be seen in the engineering retention rate, which is about 80 percent and the graduation rate is about 70 percent.
“The goal is to help students make an appropriate choice as far as their major, so they stay in engineering because they like it, and not because someone else chose for them,” Merrill said.
The Office of Minority Affairs offers both younger and older undergraduates a chance to improve themselves academically through their Tutoring Program.
OMA pairs up older students who want to “give back” with younger students in a variety of academic fields, including many across the science, foreign language, business and humanities disciplines.
As of winter quarter 2004, more than 600 students have been using tutors to help them achieve an average .4 point rise in their grade point average, according to an article in “¿Que Pasa, OSU?”
The two programs are examples of a campus and department-wide effort to help students earn their credits, graduate and become productive members of society.
“The rising entrance exam scores, retention and graduation rates all contribute to the growing reputation of Ohio State as one of our nation’s leading institutions of higher learning,” Holbrook said.
