New ways Ole Miss tries to lower dropout rates

Since 1998, the amount of Ole Miss students that continue until graduation within four years has increased from 25 percent to 36.4 percent.

There is big push for higher freshman retention rates in order to make sure graduation rates do not fall below 25 percent. According to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal, nearly 3,000 Universities should be able to have access to the approximately $130 billion federal student loan program. The gatekeepers of determining who this money goes to have been focusing more attention to any school that falls below a 25 percent four-year graduation rate.

The move is so that accreditors can weed out weak schools that do not have a majority of their students graduating within four years. The move is also an effort to rebuild trust in the accreditation process. Accreditors came up with 25 percent because it is about half of the four-year graduation rate from seven regional schools and because it has been suggested by lawmakers.

Despite Ole Miss first-year retention rates steadily rising compared to pervious years, the university is still trying to improve retention rates

This federal money will be allocated in grants, loans and work-study funding for college students in order to increase retention rates.

According to institutional research, the number of students that come to Ole Miss as freshmen have constantly been increasing, since 2010.

Ole Miss is constantly finding new ways to help incoming freshman succeed from creating new classes specialized for freshmen to having staff available to each individual’s needs.

The Center for Student Success and First-Year Experience is dedicated to helping freshmen stay at Ole Miss, said Jennifer Phillips, UM assistant director for retention. The center advises approximately 75–80 percent of freshman, Phillips said. The UM campus also has the Retention Advisory Board which, is constantly looking for new ways to help students, Phillips said.

“Each office has a list of go-to people on campus for various questions or issues,” Phillips said.

“We partner with other departments on campus to assist students with any need they may have,” Phillips said

“We often help students that may have disabilities or that need academic help through formal tutoring, to navigating the campus,” Phillips said.

Some of the departments are Financial Aid, Bursar, Residence Life, and the Counseling Center. The Center for Student Success and First-Year Experience also partners with parents to keep them updated so they can be informed of University resources, policies and dates, Phillip said.

“When students are considering leaving the university our staff works with them to see if we can assist with anything a student is encountering, hindering their ability to return to the university,” Phillips said.

“Last year, the four biggest reasons that students left the university were because of financial issues, distance from home, grades and social fit,” Phillips said.

Good retention rates are relative to the institution, Phillips said. Individualized help is offered to every freshman on campus, if needed, Phillips said.

In order to help lower retention rates the university requires first-year students to take EDHE, which is a freshman year experience that helps students transition from high school to college, Phillips said.

“With the university being so big EDHE has helped me discover everything the university has to offer,” Rebecca David, a current UM student, enrolled in EDHE said.

“Without this class I would not have known about basic but helpful things like the writing center or the bus system,” David said.

David said she is now more involved with the university since taking EDHE. It has also made David aware of the different programs and workshops Ole Miss offers to help students academically, which has improved her grades, David said.

Another way Ole Miss is lowering retention rates is by the first-year attendance based initiative, which works by making sure freshmen are going to class. Phillips said freshmen on probation after the fall semester must take the academic skills for college class, where students learn developmental academic skills.

The Academic Support Center also contacts students with poor midterm grades to see how they can help the students before it is too late, Phillips said.

“Ole Miss’ numbers are very good considering the admission standards we have for in-state students as required by the state: 2.5 core GPA and a 16 on the ACT. For Fall 2016, out-of-state students must have a 2.75 core GPA and a 22 on the ACT,” Phillips said.

Retention rates have consistently increased for certain groups since 2010. For the 2010–11 cohort, the Fall-to-Fall retention rate for first-time, full-time freshmen was 81.2 percent for 3,067 new freshmen, Tiffany Gregory, UM interim director, said.

Last year, for the 2014–15 cohort of freshmen, 86.5 percent of UM students returned for a second year out of 3,751 new freshmen, Gregory said.

“So, each year we have not only increased enrollment, but also increased retention of those students,” Gregory said.

According to IREP’s most recent report of the Fall Cohort, 2014–15, has been the highest year of retention rates of freshmen continuing to their second year.

The University of Mississippi is part of the Southern University Group (SUG) that allows Ole Miss to be compared to other similar institutions, Phillips said.

“This group consists of 31 peer institutions. If you view Mississippi State University, one of our peer institutions, their retention rate for the 2014–15 freshman cohort was 82.0 percent,” Phillips said.

University of Southern Mississippi is also a SUG member and their 2014–15 retention rate was 72.5 percent.

“As you can see, UM is +4 percent and +14 percent when compared to the two other large universities in Mississippi,” Phillips said.

Mississippi State and Southern Mississippi are good comparisons, since they hold to the same in-state admission standards, Phillips said.

Future plans for keeping good retention rates include doubling the size of the FastTrack program, which allows freshmen to take three “light” classes together and participate in outside activities. Also increasing the size of the first-year experience class, Phillips said.