Fewer sophomores have come back to Loyola this semester, resulting in a decrease in the retention rate, which was released earlier this month.
According to the Office of Enrollment Management, 77 percent of last year’s freshman class returned this year as sophomores. The previous year, 82 percent of freshmen returned, which was one of the highest retention rates for the university.
“It is unfortunate the retention rate went down, but we’re coming up with strategies to improve retention for next year,” said Elizabeth Rainey, director of Retention and Student Success.
Rainey said students having academic difficulties and financial problems may contribute to the lower retention rate. She also said many students transferred to public schools.
According to the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness, the retention rate in 2006, the year after Katrina, was 78 percent and the next year showed the lowest retention rate on record after the hurricane at 73 percent. The highest retention rate occurred in 1999, at 84 percent.
Retention is the rate at which students continue studying at a university, expressed as a percentage, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, the federal body that collects education data. Retention is calculated through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, the National Center for Education Statistics’ annual university surveys. The system is used to find the percentage of first-time freshmen who are enrolled again the next fall.
For students to be part of this, they have to be enrolled full time beginning in the fall of that year to the following fall. Although the IPEDS percentage is standard, it may not be the best representation on which students are actually at the university.
Kristen Diaz can be reached at
