The university uses several data points to assess student success, including retention and graduation rates. These measures are contextualized below by comparing Furman’s rates to averages of selected peer institutions. The data comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).

First-year persistence is the likelihood that a first-time college student returns to Furman for a second year, which is an indication of how well Furman’s admissions, financial aid, student life and academic programming match a student’s characteristics and expectations. This first-year persistence rate is commonly used in higher education as a benchmark of student success, and it serves as an early indicator of graduation rates.

Table 1. Rates at which students continue from first to second year of college, by year of calculation, so that the 2019 entry is the retention rate for the 2018 entering cohort. 

The institution aims to maintain a minimum first-year retention rate of 90%. Under the five-year strategic plan, the Year 1 retention goal is 91%, with incremental increases over the planning period to a target of 94% by Year 5.

Table 2. Four-year graduation rates by entering cohort year and corresponding graduation year.

The institution aims to maintain a minimum four-year graduation rate of 79%.

The peer comparison data is limited by the IPEDS data release schedule. In particular, the four-year graduation rates are not released until six years after the cohort starts.

Furman University aims to maintain a minimum six-year graduation rate of 81%.

Table 3. Six-year graduation rates.  

The goal of Furman’s strategic plan is to increase first-year persistence rates to 94% and to achieve overall four-year graduation rates of 84% and six-year graduation rates of 88% for all students.

The strategy to increase success rates is to adjust academic and student-service programming using data science to identify needs and the adoption of methods shown to be successful at other institutions. For example, a college success program called Pathways was developed and tested at Furman, and is now a part of the curriculum for all incoming students. The goals of the Pathways program include academic success and career preparation.

For more information on the numbers in this report, contact Furman’s Office of Assessment and Institutional Research.

Furman selected as peer institutions other liberal arts and sciences colleges and universities with similar characteristics: Bucknell University, Denison University, DePauw University, Franklin & Marshall College, Lafayette College, Mount Holyoke College, Oberlin College and Conservatory, Occidental College, Skidmore College, Thomas Aquinas College, Trinity College, Union College and Whitman College. This group is listed near Furman in US News rankings of best national liberal arts colleges, and each has a Carnegie Classification similar to Furman’s as a primarily baccalaureate institution with an arts and science (liberal arts) emphasis.

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