Summary of Activities: Beginning fall 2014, Academic Support Counselors began registering new students before their scheduled orientation session. Most of the students are registered for 15+ hours. Academic advisors review the schedules and make adjustments as appropriate. Advisors have begun advising students that 15 hours per semester is a full-time load as opposed to 12 hours, and that 15+ hours per semester are required to graduate on time
Baseline Status:
Among fall 2012 cohort, 96 (64.86%) earned an associate degree in 2 years.
Among fall 2010 cohort, 37 (62.71%) earned a bachelor’s degree in 4 years.
Interim Measures of Progress:
1027 (29.72%) of enrolled students fall 2014 were enrolled in 15+ hours; that was an increase from 736 (21.7%) in fall 2013.
Only 176 (18.16%) of the fall 2014 cohort successfully completed 30+ hours during the 2014-15 academic year; however, that was an increase from 163 (15.64%) the previous year.
Measures of Success:
Increase the number and percentage of students enrolled in 15+ hours each semester.
Projected target: 35% of fall 2016 cohort will enroll in 15+ hours.
Increase the number and percentage of first-year students successfully completing 30+ hours of collegiate credit hours in their first academic year.
Projected target: 20% of the fall 2015 cohort of first-year students will successfully complete 30+ collegiate credit hours in their first academic year.
Increase the number of students who earn an associate degree in 2 years or a bachelor’s degree in 4 years.
Projected target: 74 associate-degree-seeking students from the fall 2014 cohort will graduate in 2 years, and 40 baccalaureate-degree-seeking students from the fall 2012 cohort will graduate in 4 years.
Lessons Learned:
Many students do not seem to feel the urgency of completing their degrees OT. Because 12 hours is considered full time for financial aid, students maintain that mindset as well. Too many students repeat courses (multiple times in some cases) and withdraw from classes. Students who begin in LS continue to lag behind others.
To address these challenges, ABAC has begun to emphasize financial literacy pre-enrollment and at orientation; beginning fall 2016, all attempts at repeated courses will count, which should discourage multiple repeats; we have considered limiting withdrawals but have not yet decided on a plan; we have adopted the co-requisite model for LS to try to reduce the number of semesters students spend in LS courses.
