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Student Success, Graduation, Retention

Measuring success is a difficult task when combining all students into one category. Federal methodology, for instance, considers only first-year, full-time students graduating with a bachelor's degree within six years or an associate's degree or certificate within three years. While students attending traditional residential colleges typically belong to this category, it does not accurately depict college students as a whole. Students who transfer, take a substantial amount of time off, or even those attending part-time will not be deemed successful according to federal methodology. This raises concern as most students do not continuously enroll in the same college full time until they have completed their degree.