Student Right-To-Know Graduation and Transfer-Out Rates
What is Student Right-To-Know?
Student Right-To-Know is a federal law that requires all colleges and universities to disclose certain information to students. This handout provides the information that a college must provide to students on graduation rates and transfer-out rates for full-time students seeking degrees at Riverland Community College.
What is a graduation rate and what is a transfer-out rate?
Federal regulations specify how to calculate the graduation and transfer rates. The rates come from a study of Riverland Community College students who started at the college in the Fall 2022. The study includes all first-time students who enrolled full-time that fall and were seeking to earn a degree at the college. The graduation rate is the percentage of these students who graduated from the college within three years. The transfer-out rate is the percentage of these students who did not graduate from the college, but instead transferred to another college or university within three years.
What do I need to know about these rates?
These rates do not report on all students at Riverland Community College. The 339 first-time, full-time students in the study were 10 percent of all undergraduate students enrolled in Fall 2022.
What are the graduation and transfer-out rates for Riverland Community College students and how do they compare to rates for other colleges?
- The graduation rate for Riverland Community College was 53 percent.
- The transfer-out rate for Riverland Community College was 14 percent.
- The combination of the graduation rate and the transfer-out rate was 67 percent.
The national average combined rate for similar colleges was 51 percent.
Why don’t more Riverland Community College students graduate or transfer in three years?
- Since Riverland Community College has an "open door" mission, many new students need to take developmental courses to improve reading, writing, or math skills before taking other college courses;
- Some students take jobs before they graduate;
- Students who switch from full-time to part-time enrollment or “stop out” for one or more semesters are more likely to take more than three years to graduate;
- Other students delay their education for personal, family or financial reasons.
Disaggregated Student Right-to-Know Graduation and Transfer-out Rates
| Riverland Community College | Graduation Rate | Transfer-out Rate | Combined Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Cohort | 53% | 14% | 67% |
| Race Ethnicity | |||
| American Indian or Alaska Native | * | * | * |
| Asian | * | * | * |
| Black or African American | 16% | 32% | 48% |
| Hispanic of any race | 44% | 16% | 60% |
| Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | * | * | * |
| Two or more races | * | * | * |
| U.S. Nonresident | * | * | * |
| Unknown race and ethnicity | * | * | * |
| White | 60% | 12% | 73% |
| Gender | |||
| Female | 59% | 14% | 73% |
| Male | 48% | 14% | 63% |
| Financial Aid | |||
| Pell Grant Recipient | 47% | 14% | 60% |
| Received neither Pell nor Subsidized Stafford Loans | * | * | * |
| Received Subsidized Stafford Loans, but no Pell | * | * | * |
* Suppressed to protect student privacy.
Due to rounding, percentages may not always appear to add up.