Low Freshman Retention Rate?

quincy360
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 14:02:09 +0000

Hi–I’m a high school senior looking at a few schools in the Northeast. Currently I’m trying to decide if I want to apply to a very possible school for early decision or hold out for other schools, including Hampshire. What I want out of a school is good academics with a more creative course structure (like Hampshire–with no structured requirements), LGBT friendly, a friendly, open-minded, smart student body, kind teachers with a close student relationship, and with animal behavior courses (a very unusual request, the other top school I’m looking at is Franklin and Marshal which is the only other school that fits my needs with that major). I really love Hampshire. I know it has a reputation for being really laid-bak and hippy-ish, but everyone I know who has gone there says that isn’t true. I want to know if I’d be happy at that school, but my number-one fear right now is Hampshire has a very low freshman retention rate, somewhere in the low 60%. Does anyone know why that is? Should I be concerned about people’s happiness at the school, or its legitimacy? I just want to know the main reason for people’s transferring or dropping out, and if it should affect my opinion of the school.