Graduation rates are a key measure of student success and institutional effectiveness. They represent the percentage of students in a defined cohort who complete a degree within a specified timeframe. These timeframes are expressed as a percentage of the expected time to degree—such as 100%, 150%, or 200%—and vary by credential type (e.g., certificate, associate, or bachelor’s degree).
Graduation rates help institutions monitor progress toward completion goals, identify equity gaps, and inform strategic planning. While internal metrics often mirror federal reporting standards like IPEDS, they may differ in scope, exclusions, or cohort definitions to better suit institutional needs.
Cohort
A cohort is a group of students with shared characteristics tracked for reporting purposes. New, degree-seeking students are assigned a cohort when they enter the University, based on census enrollment data. Students fall into one of eight cohorts:
- Full-time, Bachelors degree seeking, freshman
- Full-time, Bachelors degree seeking, transfer
- Part-time, Bachelors degree seeking, freshman
- Part-time, Bachelors degree seeking, transfer
- Full-time, Associates degree seeking, freshman
- Full-time, Associates degree seeking, transfer
- Part-time, Associates degree seeking, freshman
- Part-time, Associates degree seeking, transfer
For information on how cohorts are created: see
vignette("cohort")
150 Percent Graduation Rate
Definition: 150 Percent Graduation Rate measures the percentage of a cohort of students who graduate within 150% of the expected time for their awarded degree. This metric is designed to approximate the IPEDS graduation rate but does not include all nuances of the official IPEDS calculation.
Calculation
Tracks two cohorts:
- Full-time, Bachelors degree seeking, freshman
- Full-time, Associates degree seeking, freshman
Steps:
- Start with the cohort
- Exclude Spring and Summer cohorts
- Exclude transfer cohorts
- Exclude part-time students
- Remove exclusions
Denominator: Number of students meeting the criteria above.
Numerator: Number of those students who earned a degree within 150% of time for the degree awarded.
This metric has a 6-year lag for bachelor’s degrees (150% of 4 years = 6 years). For example, students in the Fall 2016 cohort have through Summer 2022 to earn a bachelor’s degree.
150% of Time
Students must earn a degree from the start date of their cohort year:
- Certificate <= 29 credit hours: within 1 year
- Certificate 30-59 credit hours: within 1.5 years
- Associate: within 3 years
- Bachelor: within 6 years
Degree Awarded
The metric reports the highest degree earned within 150% of time. If multiple degrees are earned, only the highest within the timeframe is counted. Degrees earned outside the window are excluded.
Graduation Rate Bachelor Degree in 4 Years
Graduation Rate Bachelor Degree in 4 years is a sub-metric of the 150% Graduation Rate. It is reported in the IPEDS survey. This metric is designed to approximate the IPEDS graduation rate but does not include all nuances of the official IPEDS calculation.
Cohort: Full-time, Bachelors degree seeking, freshman
Denominator: Number of students in the cohort without an exclusion flag.
Numerator: Number of those students who graduated in 100% of time (within 4 years) with a Bachelors degree.
Graduation Rate Bachelor Degree in 6 Years
Graduation Rate Bachelor Degree in 6 years is another sub-metric of the 150% Graduation Rate. It is also reported in the IPEDS survey and approximates the official calculation.
Cohort: Full-time, Bachelors degree seeking, freshman
Denominator: Number of students in the cohort without an exclusion flag.
Numerator: Number of those students who graduated in 150% of time (within 6 years) with a Bachelors degree.
200 Percent Graduation Rate
Definition: 200 Percent Graduation Rate measures the percentage of students in a cohort who graduate within 200% of the expected time to degree. This metric provides insight into extended completion timelines and is useful for understanding outcomes for students who face barriers to timely graduation.
Like the 150% metric, this is part of the standard IPEDS Graduation Rate survey.
Calculation
Tracks one cohort:
- Full-time, Bachelors degree seeking, freshman
Steps:
- Start with the cohort
- Exclude Spring and Summer cohorts
- Exclude transfer cohorts
- Exclude part-time students
- Exclude associates cohorts
- Remove exclusions
Denominator: Number of students meeting the criteria above.
Numerator: Number of those students who earned a degree within 200% of time for the degree awarded.
This metric has an 8-year lag for bachelor’s degrees (200% of 4 years = 8 years). For example, students in the Fall 2016 cohort have through Summer 2024 to earn a bachelor’s degree.
SQL for Graduation Rate
/*
IPEDS Graduation Rate
Approved on 20250416
This query pulls the data needed to calculate graduation rate data over time and to provide data broken out by various demographics.
It uses student term cohort as the base table. It is composed of students in the first-time freshman and transfer cohorts.
It pulls data for the current year plus 10 years to go back far enough to pull 6 year graduation rate.
It joins to the student table to get current demographic data.
It joins to the degrees awarded table and pulls the highest degree awarded and associated degree data.
It joins to the student term level census to pull term data based on the cohort term at census.
It joins to the student term level end of term to pull first term gpa.
*/
SELECT
a.student_id,
a.sis_system_id,
a.cohort_start_term_id,
e.season,
SUBSTRING(e.term_id, 1, 4) AS year,
a.cohort_code,
a.cohort_code_desc,
-- updating all athletes to BA/Bachelor for NCAA reporting
b.is_athlete AS is_athlete_ever,
CASE
WHEN b.is_athlete THEN 'BA' -- if athlete, change degree level to BA
ELSE a.cohort_degree_level_code
END AS cohort_degree_level_code,
CASE
WHEN b.is_athlete THEN 'Bachelor' -- if athlete, change degree level to Bachelor
ELSE a.cohort_degree_level_desc
END AS entering_program_type,
a.cohort_desc,
a.full_time_part_time_code,
a.is_exclusion,
-- student demographic data from current (b table)
b.gender_code,
CASE
WHEN b.gender_code = 'M' THEN 'Male'
WHEN b.gender_code = 'F' THEN 'Female'
ELSE 'Unspecified'
END AS gender_desc,
b.us_citizenship_desc,
b.is_international,
-- calculating age band based on graduation date, if the student didn't graduate, then NA
CASE
WHEN EXTRACT(YEAR from AGE(c.graduation_date, b.birth_date)) < 18 THEN 'less than 18'
WHEN EXTRACT(YEAR from AGE(c.graduation_date, b.birth_date)) BETWEEN 18 and 24 THEN '18 to 24'
WHEN EXTRACT(YEAR from AGE(c.graduation_date, b.birth_date)) BETWEEN 25 and 34 THEN '25 to 34'
WHEN EXTRACT(YEAR from AGE(c.graduation_date, b.birth_date)) BETWEEN 35 and 44 THEN '35 to 44'
WHEN EXTRACT(YEAR from AGE(c.graduation_date, b.birth_date)) BETWEEN 45 and 59 THEN '45 to 59'
WHEN EXTRACT(YEAR from AGE(c.graduation_date, b.birth_date)) > 59 THEN '60 plus'
ELSE 'NA'
END AS graduation_age_band,
b.is_first_generation,
b.is_veteran,
b.first_admit_country_desc,
b.first_admit_state_desc,
b.first_admit_county_desc,
b.death_date,
b.ipeds_race_ethnicity,
CASE
WHEN b.ipeds_race_ethnicity = 'American Indian/Alaskan' THEN 'Minority'
WHEN b.ipeds_race_ethnicity = 'Asian' THEN 'Minority'
WHEN b.ipeds_race_ethnicity = 'Black/African American' THEN 'Minority'
WHEN b.ipeds_race_ethnicity = 'Hawaiian/Pacific Islander' THEN 'Minority'
WHEN b.ipeds_race_ethnicity = 'Hispanic' THEN 'Minority'
WHEN b.ipeds_race_ethnicity = 'Multiracial' THEN 'Minority'
ELSE 'Non-minority'
END AS minority,
--graduation data (c & d tables)
c.is_graduated,
c.graduated_term_id,
c.degree_id AS grad_degree_id,
CASE
WHEN d.ipeds_award_level_code IN ('1A', '1B', '2') THEN 'Certificate'
WHEN d.ipeds_award_level_code = '3' THEN 'Associate'
WHEN d.ipeds_award_level_code = '5' THEN 'Bachelor'
WHEN d.ipeds_award_level_code IS NULL THEN d.ipeds_award_level_code
ELSE 'Error'
END AS graduated_degree_type,
d.ipeds_award_level_code,
c.graduation_date,
c.primary_program_id AS grad_program_id,
d.department_id AS grad_department_id,
d.department_desc AS grad_department_desc,
d.college_desc AS grad_college_desc,
d.college_abbrv AS grad_college_abbrv,
-- calculating how many days it took to graduate;
-- days to graduate is null if the degree was awarded before the student was placed in a cohort or no degree was awarded
e.term_start_date,
CASE
WHEN c.graduation_date - e.term_start_date < 0 THEN NULL
ELSE c.graduation_date - e.term_start_date END AS days_to_graduate,
-- entering student data (f and g tables) from census
f.primary_program_id AS entering_program_id,
f.primary_degree_desc AS entering_degree_type,
COALESCE(f.primary_major_desc, g.major_desc) AS entering_major,
g.college_desc AS entering_college_desc,
g.college_abbrv AS entering_college_abbrv,
g.department_desc AS entering_department_desc,
f.is_online_program_student AS entering_is_online_program_student,
f.residency_code AS entering_residency_code,
f.residency_in_state_desc AS entering_residency_in_state_desc,
f.is_pell_eligible AS entering_pell_eligible,
f.is_pell_awarded AS entering_pell_awarded,
-- entering student data (h table) from end of term
CASE
WHEN h.overall_cumulative_gpa < 2.0 THEN '0_to_1.999'
WHEN h.overall_cumulative_gpa BETWEEN 2.0 AND 2.499 THEN '2_to_2.499'
WHEN h.overall_cumulative_gpa BETWEEN 2.5 AND 2.999 THEN '2.5_to_2.999'
WHEN h.overall_cumulative_gpa BETWEEN 3.0 AND 4 THEN '3_to_4'
ELSE 'not at end of term'
END AS first_term_gpa_band
FROM export.student_term_cohort a
LEFT JOIN export.student b
ON b.student_id = a.student_id
LEFT JOIN export.degrees_awarded c
ON c.student_id = a.student_id
AND c.is_highest_undergraduate_degree_awarded -- one graduation record per student
AND c.degree_status_code = 'AW'
LEFT JOIN export.academic_programs d
ON d.program_id = c.primary_program_id
LEFT JOIN export.term e
ON e.term_id = a.cohort_start_term_id
LEFT JOIN export.student_term_level_version f -- Census
ON f.student_id = a.student_id
AND f.term_id = a.cohort_start_term_id
AND f.version_desc = 'Census'
AND f.is_enrolled
AND f.is_primary_level
LEFT JOIN export.student_term_level_version h -- End of Term
ON h.student_id = a.student_id
AND h.term_id = a.cohort_start_term_id
AND h.version_desc = 'End of Term'
AND h.is_enrolled
AND h.is_primary_level
LEFT JOIN export.academic_programs g
ON g.program_id = f.primary_program_id
WHERE cohort_code_desc != 'Student Success'
AND DATE_PART('year', NOW()) - e.academic_year_code :: INT <= 10 -- Last 10 Years