Main Content:
What is Student Right-To-Know?
Student Right-To-Know is a federal law that requires all colleges and universities to disclose certain information to students. This handout provides the information that a college must provide to students on graduation rates and transfer-out rates for full-time students seeking degrees at Rochester Community and Technical College.
What is graduation rate and what is transfer-out rate?
Federal regulations specify how to calculate the graduation and transfer rates. The rates come from a study of Rochester students who started at the college in the fall of 2007. The study includes all first-time students who enrolled full-time that fall and were seeking to earn a degree, diploma or certificate at the college. The graduation rate is the percentage of these students who graduated from Rochester within three years. The transfer-out rate is the percentage of these students who did not graduate from Rochester, but instead transferred to another college or university within three years.
What do I need to know about these rates?
These rates do not report on all students at Rochester. The 1,038 first-time, full-time students in the study were 18 percent of all students enrolled at Rochester in fall of 2007.
What are the graduation and transfer-out rates for Rochester students and how do they compare to rates for other colleges?
- The graduation rate for Rochester was 22 percent.
- The transfer-out rate for Rochester was 23 percent.
- The combination of the graduation rate and the transfer-out rate for Rochester was 45 percent.
The national average combined rate for similar colleges was 40 percent.
Why don't more Rochester students graduate or transfer in three years?
- Since Rochester has an "open door" mission, many new students need to take "developmental" courses to improve their reading, writing or math skills before taking other college courses;
- Students who switch from full-time to part-time enrollment or "stop out" for one or more semesters are more likely to take more than three years to graduate;
- Some students take jobs before they graduate;
- Other students delay their education for personal, family or financial reasons.
Updated: November 16, 2011
