10 questions colleges should ask to understand their ......10 questions colleges should ask to...
TRANSCRIPT
10 Questions Colleges
Should Ask to Understand
Their Retention ChallengesBrian Galloway, Director of Student Retention, Villanova University
Daniel McDevitt, Director of Student Success & First Year Experience, Saint Joseph’s University
March 26, 8:00 AM
Session 6610
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• Please complete the session evaluation using the AACRAO
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• Please avoid side conversation during the session
Thank you for your cooperation!
Biographies
Brian Galloway
• More than 11 years at Villanova; more than 12 in higher ed
• Admissions and international recruitment for seven years
• Student retention for more than five years
• MA in Strategic Communication; MBA both from Villanova
Dan McDevitt
• More than 9 years at St. Joseph’s University
• Academic advising and Advancement for three years
• Student retention for six years
• MBA, Ed.D. both from St. Joseph’s
Presentation Format
10 Questions
5 minutes each
Questions at the end
Question 1:
Do you know who the
students are that you are
supposed to be retaining?
Know Your Students• Tracking student engagement over the summer
• Designated points throughout the summer for follow-up
with less engaged students
• Emails
• Phone calls
• Postcards
• Identify no-shows at the beginning of the semester
• Residence Life (never moved into the dorm)
• Faculty (never attended class)
Determining the Cohort• Characteristics of members of the cohort
• First time, full time students
• Under-enrolled?
• Time period to lock down the cohort
• First day of classes?
• Add/Drop period?
• After the tuition refund deadline has passed?
• Need agreement among various offices
• Retention/Student Success
• Registrar
• Admissions/Enrollment Management
Question 2:
What does 1% look like
at your institution?
The 1%
• 17 more students retained will increase retention rates by 1%
• 9 more students would increase 0.5% and allow you to round up
1677 / 100 = 16.77 ≈ 17
NTR* of 1 student = $42,700NTR of $42,700 x 9 = $384,300
NTR of $42,700 x 17 = $725,900*Net Tuition Revenue assumption of $61,000 total cost and 30% discount rate
The 1%• When evaluating projects, be specific about goals and
assessments
• Take a nuanced approach to your numbers
90
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Average Number of FR-SO Leavers with St Dev TERM
Fall FTFT
PAST Retention Rates
# returned students
# lost students
FA 2008 1602 94.93% 1521 81
FA 2009 1601 94.13% 1507 94
FA 2010 1640 94.87% 1556 84
FA 2011 1648 93.93% 1548 100
FA 2012 1644 94.23% 1549 95
FA 2013 1640 94.14% 1544 96
FA 2014 1659 93.67% 1554 105
FA 2015 1668 95.86% 1599 69
FA 2016 1699 94.82% 1611 88
The 1%• Threshold for engaging in new project or purchasing new
product
Standard Dev + 1 + Additional Desired Outcome / Time frame
10.33 + 1 + 1% (17) = 28.33 ≈ 28 / 3 yrs
NTR of $42,700 x 28 = $1.2 million / 3 yrs9+ more students/year; +$400,000/year
The 1%• 1% is Great For…
• Presidents and Provosts
• Boards and Bond Raters
• Rankings and Revenue
• Financial Aid
• 1% is Challenging For…
• Housing and Dining
• Classroom Space and Faculty
• Support Services
• Financial Aid
Question 3:
When do your students leave
you and what can that tell you
about how to structure your
retention efforts?
When do your students leave?
When do your students leave?• Put another way…
337 333
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Left during/after term 2 Left all other terms
Students attending “better” schools:
8.7% (29 students)Students attending “better” schools:
36% (121 students)
Average GPA atTime of Departure:
3.25
Average GPA atTime of Departure:
2.76
When do your students leave?
• Earlier leavers are:
• More mobile (financially and academically)
• Did not have Villanova as their first choice
• Ended up some place “better” more often
• Later leavers are:
• Struggling academically (and possibly financially)
• Rarely landed somewhere “better”
• Bouncing along the bottom 10% of their cohort by GPA
When do your students leave?
96.18%
94.49%
93.93%
97.78%
94.35% 93.91%
96.83%
93.48%
92.10%
96.73%
93.86%
93.13%
95.55%
94.73%94.26%
98.66%
94.31%
92.92%
88%
90%
92%
94%
96%
98%
100%
HONORS non-HONS like-HONS
FR-SO Retention Rates
FA 2011
FA 2012
FA 2013
FA 2014
FA 2015
FA 2016
When do your students leave?
• Two groups, two distinct strategies.
• Better, more comprehensive student support services
• Access to tutoring, mental health support, mentoring and more.
Question 4:
Have you done a self-
assessment of your academic
support landscape?
Academic Support
• What we learned from a self-assessment:
• Patchwork of at least 8 offices
• 92% of graduates in c/o 2015 found services adequate but…
• Only 56% of those respondents had ever sought out any support services
• In exit surveys of withdrawing students, strong satisfaction dropped from 44% to just 15% in four years
• University was only spending about $15/student/year but…
• Some students were receiving spending of as much as $60/student/year
• Graduating students of color were both more likely to seek out support and less likely to be satisfied with the results based on the survey
Academic Support
• What was our plan?• Gathered all offices supporting students. Made them
partners in change.
• Benchmarked against other colleges to see better delivery models and budgets
• Provost installed a AVP at the right time
• Everyone signed off on the final report recommendations
Academic Support
• Our Outcomes:
• Consolidated delivery method for most academic support
• Co-location with the offices’ blessings
• Increased overall budgets significantly
• Hired a coordinator with plans for an executive director
• Predict demand and target courses
Academic Support • Demand prediction and targeting
FALL midterm SPRING midtermSUBJECT Percent
“not
Ideal”
Number
Enrolled
Number
“not
ideal”
Intro to Micro 23.01% 591 136
Gen Chem I 20.27% 587 119
Intermediate Spanish I 18.49% 384 71
General Psych 24.73% 364 90
Calculus I 27.30% 337 93
FMR II 33.66% 306 103
FMR I 36.60% 306 112
Organic Chem I 30.89% 246 76
Gen Bio I 22.78% 237 54
Business Calculus 24.31% 218 53
SUBJECT Percent
“not
Ideal”
Number
Enrolled
Number
“not
ideal
Intro to Macro 19.53% 599 117
General Psych 26.93% 375 101
General Chem II 27.74% 310 86
Corp Respons and Regulations 18.42% 304 56
Business Stats 21.69% 272 59
Calc II 27.21% 272 74
Global Political Economy 16.74% 239 40
FMR I 43.38% 219 95
Organic Chem II 50.46% 218 110
FMR II 27.19% 217 59
Question 5:
What support options are in
place to assist struggling
students?
Invisible Safety Net (ISN)
• Identify, monitor, and provide outreach to students who are facing obstacles
• Student Life and Academics
• Weekly meetings (facts, not gossip)
• Central ISN database
• Follow-up outreach plans
• Also have a BIT and a CIRT
• **Example of a student case at an ISN meeting**
Rebound Program
• Who?: Any first year student who receives below a 2.0 GPA during the fall semester
• What?: 7 group workshops plus 3 individual mentor meetings during the spring semester
• Results: FY to SO retention rate (8-yr avg.)
• Rebound Completers 89%
• Eligible but did not sign up 54%
PASS Program
• Designed for upper-class students on academic probation
• Similar to the Rebound Program
• No required group workshops
• More individually tailored plans between students and mentors
Question 6:
What are you doing to work
with the students who are not
making Satisfactory Academic
Progress (SAP)?
Making Satisfactory Academic Progress
“You need to make satisfactory academic progress in order to continue receiving federal student aid. In other words, you have to make good
enough grades, and complete enough classes (credits, hours, etc.), to keep moving toward successfully completing your degree or certificate in a
time period that’s acceptable to your school.”
Source: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/eligibility/staying-eligible
Making Satisfactory Academic Progress
SAP
Making SAP Access to federal financial aid
Not making SAP Loss of federal financial aid*
Making Satisfactory Academic Progress
• Previous model—one email to all students
• Proposed idea—communication plan with follow-ups and multiple modes of outreach
• Challenges working with different populations of students
• Different standards
• Different processes
Ultimate goal is to help students retain, persist, and succeed!
Question 7:
How do you connect with
students who demonstrate no
at-risk behavior?
Transcript Requests• Transcript on Demand from Credentials eScript-Safe
• “What is your reason for requesting this transcript?”
147 132 135
4…
334
352
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
2014-15 2015-16 2016-17
# students # transcripts
Transcript Requests• “Better” school is a blunt assessment of selectivity rate and average
test scores
55.61%
63.47%
50.57%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
2014-15 2015-16 2016-17
% of transcripts sent to "better" schools
Transcript Requests• I meet with students throughout the semester
• Pull requests every Monday and send out invitations for confidential meetings
• Usually get a little more than 50% to come in and talk.
• Allows us to identify any non-academic challenge (usually financial or social) and try to troubleshoot solutions.
• Usually just helpful to listen
Transcript Requests• Exactly 50% of those who request a transcript end up returning.
• Exactly 50% of those who meet with me end up returning
• Number is very different by number of transcripts requested
Dear Mr. Galloway,
I spoke to you in your office a few months ago about some of my concerns regarding the university and why I was thinking of transferring. I just wanted to let you know that after much thought and consideration of other options, I decided to stay at Villanova. I wanted to thank you because your receptive and understanding nature played a part in my decision to stay.
I hope you have a great summer.
Transcript Requests
• The three years of data provided fertile ground for focus group
• Last spring there were 150 students who requested a transcript in a previous term who were still enrolled at VU.
• Why?
• We asked, they told us.
Question 8:
Do you have an effective exit
interview process?
Exit Interview Process
• Some institutions have no process in place for students to let them know they are leaving
• Missed opportunity
• Big decision to choose to attend, equally big decision to choose to leave (closure)
• Important feedback on the student experience
Centralized Process
• Too many offices involved = confusion
• Ideally, one office to handle all student withdraws
• Central office to track attrition indicators and reach out to students
• Utilize a withdrawal email alias for notifications to members of the institution that need to act
One Question Exit Interview (1QEI)
#1
#2#3
Question 9:
How do your retention and
graduation rates differ across
academic colleges,
departments, and majors?
Rates Across Depts or Colleges• Can help to identify specific areas of need
• Provides for natural experiments
94.42%
6.54%
82.79%
6.01% 4.26%
5.34%
80.38%
3.80%
91.47% 97.37%
5.12% 4.99% 8.23% 3.88%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
VSB ARTS SC EG NU
COHORT ENTERED FA 2015; RETURNED FA 2016
DID NOT RETURN
returned to NU
returned to EG
returned to SC
returned to AR
returned to VSB
Rates Across Depts or Colleges• Biology Dept has seen increasing overall graduation rates
Rates Across Depts or Colleges• But the percent of BIO students graduating with a science degree has moved
very little
Question 10:
Is anyone checking in with the
students who should have
graduated?
Looking Past the 4-yr Window
• Easy to overlook students in the 9th semester and beyond
• Industry norm is to report out the 6-year graduation rate
• Not engaging with students after 4 years is a missed opportunity
Looking Past the 4-yr Window
• Mailed letters
• Slightly different text based on credits earned
• Timing: Thanksgiving holiday
• Shows that the institution still cares
• Helps students reconnect with campus
• Some hold on to the letter for months before acting
• Move the needle for 6-year graduation rates
Your Questions?
Thank You!Brian Galloway, Villanova University
Dan McDevitt, St. Joseph’s University
Please complete the session evaluation using the AACRAO mobile app or the paper form provided in your registration packet.
Session ID 6610