(Source: University of Minnesota)Students focus so much energy on getting in to college that they seemingly ignore the important matter of getting out. Now researchers want to know why so many students aren't graduating.



Here's a blurb from an AP article:

Just 54 percent of students entering four-year colleges in 1997 had a degree six years later --- and even fewer Hispanics and blacks did, according to some of the latest government figures. After borrowing for school but failing to graduate, many of those students may be worse off than if they had never attended college at all. [....]

It's known that elite schools have generally higher graduation rates than non-elite schools. But what's less clear is why the graduation rates at seemingly similar colleges vary so much. For instance, the main campuses of Penn State and the University of Minnesota have comparable price tags, student SAT scores, and percentage of students from poor backgrounds. Yet Penn State graduates more than 80 percent of its students, and Minnesota barely half.

Racial gaps are another concern. Overall, the federal figures report 57 percent of white students finish their degree, compared with 44 percent of Hispanics and 39 percent of blacks. A 2004 Education Trust report found a quarter of schools have gaps between whites and blacks of 20 points or more.

Traditionally, experts say, blame has fallen on high schools, or on the students themselves.

"You walk into a high school and 50 percent of the kids aren't graduating, people say 'What's the matter with this place? Get me the principal. Get me the school board. Let's put this place in receivership,'" said Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. "But people walk into (a college) and say 'What's the matter with these students? We gave them a chance to go to college.'"Kids at the Ivies joke that it's harder to get in than to get out. Yet for most other students, the opposite appears more true.