<p>For freshman engineering class of 2008, engineering lost 9% the first year (varies from year to year) who left the university and didn’t enroll sophomore year (August 2009). A different issue is how many other freshman switched from engineering to another college at UIUC. Because of the process used, the figure you actually get, less than 4%, is misleading. You can transfer from one college to another at UIUC beginning after first year but not before. You can make your first request to transfer during second semester freshman year, about midway through, and have it granted by end of first year so you start second year in the new college. That group leads to that less than 4% figure. But reality is that most freshman who actually decide to transfer from engineering to another college won’t request to do so until after they get done with first year (and many of those wait to after first semester sophomore year). That means they cannot request a transfer until just before classes begin their sophomore year (and through first week of sophomore year) because that is when the next transfer request period occurs following the one that occured during second semester freshman year. That group (much larger) usually does not get approval and records officially changed until after classes begin sophomore year with the result that they are counted as being in engineering when they started as sophomores but for all intents and purposes they are really no longer in engineering. You also have many that decide to leave after starting sophomore year or transfer first semester sophomore year into another UIUC college for second semester. Thus having a “freshman” retention rate number in engineering really does not tell you the actual story. </p>
<p>The more important number is how many are gone by beginning of third year since a large percentage of those who get through two years of engineering actually go on to graduate from engineering. For UIUC, the percentage of engineering freshman who have either left the university or switched colleges by beginning of third year is in the 25% and somewhat higher range. Its six year graduation rate for freshman who begin in engineering and actually graduate from engineering is about 66%. Note, that I believe many other universities have similar “time of counting” issues when it comes to determining freshman who start in engineering and begin sophomore year in the same college and thus when you see high retention rates you need to be a little skeptical.</p>