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Fahey Associates Bulletin
Fahey Associates Bulletin
Andrew Nguyen

Andrew Nguyen

Less-Selective Colleges With Highest Retention

Posted on 2021-02-11by Andrew Nguyen

Retention refers to a students’ continued enrollment in one institution after completion of their first year. A high retention rate is a sign that the institution boasts strong academics, strong support, and great student life overall that help a student graduate and achieve greater goals. There are several colleges (paywall), which, despite their lenient selectiveness, maintain high retention rates. The institutions below yield an average acceptance rate of 62.38% while maintaining an average retention rate of 93.73%.

When choosing where to apply to college, many students tend to aim for big-name prestigious universities.  However, in their selection of “backup” colleges, it is equally important that students also look into schools that are more lenient. At the same time, those backups should boast a high retention rate along with strong academics that show the potential of helping students obtain their degrees. Notable institutions selected by The Chronicle are the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of Washington, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Retention and acceptance rates as of fall 2016



Source: Data is from an analysis of U.S. Department of Education data by the Chronicle.

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Claremont Colleges Consortium Boasts High Yields Among Liberal Arts Schools

Posted on 2020-09-112020-09-11by Andrew Nguyen
Yield refers to the percentage of students admitted to an institution who choose to enroll. Colleges pride themselves on this metric as it demonstrates their value and reputation to high-caliber students. High yields are also financially valuable as they bring in more tuition money every year. Liberal arts schools saw a 42% increase in the number of applicants between 2007 and 2017, but yield is expected to drop with the coronavirus pandemic as students face financial or logistic roadblocks and are unable to attend college.  

Institutional Yield 2017

Source: The Chronicle
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International Students Contributed $41 billion to the US Economy

Posted on 2020-09-112020-09-25by Andrew Nguyen

…as well as 458,290 jobs during the 2018-2019 academic year a new NAFSA report finds. Trump’s July 6th announcement of his intention to bar international college students from entering the country if their school went fully remote was met with swift outrage and backlash by both students and colleges. Along came a joint lawsuit launched by Harvard and MIT against the administration backed by over 200 colleges.

Although Trump had retracted the policy as of July 15, the threat of losing international students in American higher education remains as the country continues its steady 10% decline in international enrollment it has faced since 2016. This is largely due to international students’ disapproval of the current administrations’ harsh attitude and rhetoric around immigration, as well as financial concerns, uncertainty about employment in America post-graduation, and difficulties in the US visa process.

Compounded by the coronavirus, some estimates predict a further 25% decline in international enrollment for the 2020-2021 school year, which would have harsh consequences for American higher education. Financially, international students subsidize lower in-state tuition and financial aid for domestic students by typically paying full price for their college education. Losing international students will force colleges to raise tuition and cut programs, causing a positive feedback loop that will make it harder to attract these same students in the future.

The hardest hit will be colleges in the Midwest without global brand recognition, as well as graduate programs in which 50% of schools are reporting declines in international applicants. Besides colleges, local economies will feel the loss of the $41 billion that international students pumped into the United States last year. In addition to immediate financial repercussions, the US economy will lose jobs as 1 in 4 billion-dollar startups are founded by former international students. Highly technical or STEM-related jobs are also often filled by qualified international students, with 458,290 jobs filled by international students in 2019-2020. A loss of these students may push companies to relocate.

As the United States strides forward, colleges must get creative in order to compete with Canadian, Australian, and European universities that have begun to attract international students’ attention. Prioritizing diversity and foreign student enrollment will be critical not only for cultivating a diversity of thought on college campuses and aiming for academic excellence across borders but also for the financial health of higher education and continued innovation in the American economy.

  Economic Contributions of International Students by State

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College Fit is Key to Completion of STEM Degrees

Posted on 2020-09-042021-01-23by Andrew Nguyen
…as Malcolm Gladwell’s 2013 book David and Goliath finds that choosing a school where you excel may be more important than choosing a school for its elite status, especially for those interested in science. Largely based on a 1988 study by Strenata et. al, Gladwell’s book proposes that being in the bottom tertile academically may be a deterrent for continuing to pursue STEM due to the hierarchical nature of the discipline. Students often opt to change majors when “relative failure at the basic levels is not only discouraging but to some extent incapacitating for the next courses” (Strenata et. al 5 ). Gladwell then quotes a study by UCLA professor Mitchell Chang: “For every 10-point increase in the average SAT score of an entering cohort of freshmen at a given institution, the likelihood of retention decreases by two percentage points”. As shown in the chart, the likelihood of persistence towards a STEM degree is less correlated to a students’ Math SAT score than it is dependent upon their score relative to their peers.
Source: Rogers Elliott and Christopher Strenta — Data reported in David and Goliath — §3 "Caroline Sack"
↑ Correlation between Math SAT Score (X axis) and Graduation Rate (Y) for three categories of students — Top Third, Middle Third, Bottom Third (all represented by dots) — among four Colleges. Whereas they have a Math SAT Score superior, the bottom third at Harvard struggles to graduate (85% drops) compared to the Top Third at Hartwick.
→ Related Videos: Malcolm Gladwell's Talk at Google Zeitgeist and Alex Chang's The Unspoken Reality Behind the Harvard Gates, an account on relative deprivation inside elite schools.
This bulletin was written by Elise Rust and edited by Andrew Nguyen.
For any error, precision and/or correction to be applied to this bulletin feel free to contact us at bulletin@fahey.associates — Thank you!
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