University of California Berkeley

Comparison of Retention Rates at Peer Institutions

Fall 1994 Cohort

source:  Association of American Universities Data Exchange (AAUDE) member web site.

FINDINGS

Graph 1 - Retention: Trends for All UCB Freshman Students

> First year retention rates improved by 2.4% between 1990 and 2000 (93.4% to 95.8%)

> Second year retention rates increased by 3.8% between 1990 and 1999, to a record high of 90.4%)

Graph 2 - Retention:  Differences Among UCB Gender and Ethnic Groups (1995 Cohort)

> Females are more likely to return each year after matriculation than their male counterparts

- there is a 2.7% difference between males and females in the first year, increasing to a 4.5% difference in the third year

> Asian students return each year more consistantly than other ethnic groups

- the difference is greatest by the third year, with 88.4% of the Asian students returning (82.4% is the UCB average)

> Native American, Hispanic and Black return rates are significantly below the average in all three years

Graph 3 - Retention:  Peer Comparison for First Year Return by Gender (1994 Cohort)

> Only two institutions have higher overall first year retention rates than UCB (94.9% and 96.8% compared to 94.5%)

> First year retention is higher for females than males at all institutions except one, and UCB is above average for both gender groups

Graph 4 - Retention:  Peer Comparison for First Year Return by Ethnicity (1994 Cohort)

> UCB has a higher first-year return rate among Native American students (the smallest ethnic group) than any of the peers (94.4%)

> UCB experiences higher retention of Black and Hispanic students than four peer institutions (and lower than three)

> Retention rates of Asian students are the highest of any ethnic group at each peer institute

Graph 5 - Retention:  Peer Comparison for Second Year Return by Gender (1994 Cohort)

> UCB's second year retention rates are slightly higher than the peer group average for both males and females (86.2% and 88.9% respectively)

Graph 6 - Retention:  Peer Comparison for Second Year Return by Ethnicity (1994 Cohort)

> UCB Black students have below average second year returns (78.6%); Whites average (85.3%); other groups are above the peer group average

Graph 7 - Retention:  Peer Comparison for Third Year Return by Gender (1994 Cohort)

> UCB's return rate in the third year is near the peer group average for both males and females (80.6% and 84.5%)

Graph 8 - Retention:  Peer Comparison for Third Year Return by Ethnicity (1994 Cohort)

> UCB's third year returns for Asians (89%) and Hispanics (77.2%) are higher than most peers; near average for Native, Black and White students

Data Sheets:  1994 data for UCB and peer institutions from AAUDE web site; 1995 data for UCB only was submitted to AAUDE; and

UCB trend data for 1990-2000 from AAUDE web site