<p>I put a good deal of importance on the frosh retention rate, somewhat less on the 4 year graduation rate. The fact that D’s top choice univ has received awards for freshmen experience, and they have a 90+% return rate, was a important in our book.</p>
<p>Example of taking more than 4 years to graduate: relative’s son recently took 4 1/2 years to graduate from Clemson. Stated reason - he changed majors and couldn’t fit a required course into his schedule (with pre-requisites, etc) in time. Real reason, his mom joked, was that he wanted to stick around for 1 more football season. The student didn’t really deny that joke! I see on page 1 of this thread that Clemson’s 4-year rate is 50%, I wonder how many other kids fall in the “more football, please!” category, ha ha. And then there are schools that incorporate co-op and internships, such as Northeastern, where 5 years is pretty much standard.</p>
<p>Toblin: “No State U will deny registration and timely graduation due to over crowding.” From what I hear, this is not an uncommon occurrence at UMass.</p>