Appendix: Graduation Rates

The IPEDS Graduation Rate is also known as the “Student Right to Know” graduation rate. It tracks the progress of students who began their studies as full-time, first-time degree- or certificate-seeking students, created as a cohort at the beginning of every Fall term, to find if they earn a degree or other award such as a certificate within 150% of “normal time” for completing the program in which they are enrolled. This cohort is then adjusted to exclude students who are deceased, or who have left school to join the military or the Peace Corp, or to travel as a church missionary. The residual student set is known as the Adjusted Cohort.

The Graduation Rate for four-year institutions, such as Florida State College at Jacksonville, is tracked over a six-year period.  

Note that not all students at the institution are tracked for this Graduation Rate. Students who have already attended another postsecondary institution, who began their studies on a part-time basis, or who are not pursuing a degree- or certificate-seeking program are not tracked in this rate. Please see IPEDS Outcome Measures for graduation rates that include PT, non-FTIC students as well.

Transfer Out Rates

The IPEDS Transfer-Out Rate is the percentage of the full-time, first-time students from the Graduation Rate Survey cohort who transferred to another institution prior to completion of the student’s chosen certificate or degree program.

Although this count and percentage rate are provided separately, students who have transferred out continue to be tracked in the adjusted cohort.

Athletically-Related Aid Graduation Rates

The IPEDS Athletically-Related Aid graduation rate is another component of the “Student Right to Know” graduation rate. It tracks the progress of students who receive athletically-related financial aid, created as a cohort at the beginning of every Fall term, to see if they earn a degree or other award such as a certificate within 150% of “normal time” for completing the program in which they are enrolled. Athletically-related student aid includes any scholarship, grant, or other form of financial assistance, the terms of which require the recipient to participate in a program of intercollegiate athletics at an institution of higher education in order to be eligible to receive that assistance.

Outcome Measures 6 and 8

The purpose of the Outcome Measures (OM) component of IPEDS is track the status of four undergraduate student cohorts at degree-granting institutions. Student completion awarded by the reporting institution and enrollment status is collected six and eight years after they entered the reporting institution. The OM component collects award and enrollment data from degree-granting institutions on four undergraduate cohorts at two points in time: six-year and eight-year.

The Outcome Measures component collects data from degree-granting institutions on four degree/certificate-seeking student cohorts:

• Full-time, first-time entering students
• Part-time, first-time entering students
• Full-time, non-first-time entering students
• Part-time, non-first-time entering students

Because the same cohort is tracked over two different time periods, the exclusions counts can differ, which would cause the Adjusted Cohort size to differ as well.