We focus a lot of attention on retaining students. Retention is determined not by the number of students who leave the college but by the number who leave the university after enrollment but before graduating. Understanding this population may help us in our efforts to retain students.
In fall of 2021, 54 students dropped out of the university from the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, meaning they did not enroll in the spring semester and did not graduate. Of those students who dropped out, 31% (17) were freshmen, 20% (11) were sophomores, 31% (17) were juniors and 17% (9) were seniors.
Interestingly, the average GPA of students who drop out increases with their academic year. The average GPA for freshmen was 2.0, sophomores was 2.5, juniors was 2.7 and seniors was 2.8.
Sports media and communication majors were 42% (23) of the students who dropped out, followed by advertising and public relations with 30% (16), journalism with 17% (9) and broadcasting with 11% (6).
