Freshman fall-to-spring retention rates climb

This academic year’s first-year student retention rate from fall to spring semester increased to above 95%, the first time it has done so since Augustana’s 2016-2017 academic year.

From fall to spring, first-year retention reached 95.2%. Last year, first-year retention was 92%, and in the 2021-2022 academic year, it was 92.3%.

Registrar Joni Krueger said that since 2016-2017, when Augustana first reached the goal of 95% or more, the university has been striving to reach it again.

Retention measures the number of students who stayed at an institution from one period to another and is used by institutions to measure student satisfaction. Krueger said the retention rate is measured using only “first-time, full-time new students” at Augustana, not including transfer students that start as freshmen.

“We look really, really close at that first-year retention to try to help students who decided to come here graduate,” Krueger said.

Freshman Greyson Magill, an exercise science major, said he didn’t think about transferring between fall and spring semesters.

“I’ve made a lot of great connections here,” Magill said. “Augie’s atmosphere makes that easy because everyone is so welcoming.”

Over the last 10 years, the average retention rates among first-year students was 93%. The metric has ranged between 90 to 95% every year since 2001, which Krueger said is “fairly consistent retention.”

“Augustana’s retention rates are among the highest in the region,” President Stephanie Herseth Sandlin said.

Although it looks primarily at the first-time, full-time cohort, the registrar’s office also keeps track of sophomore, transfer and whole student-body retention.

In the 2023-2024 school year, sophomore retention from fall-to-spring semester falls around 87%, and the transfer student retention rate is 93%, which is 13% higher than last year’s 80%. Whole student-body retention is roughly 93%.

Krueger said students are encouraged to have an exit interview with the dean of students upon transferring, leaving or pausing education at Augustana. In doing so, Krueger said the university hopes to identify the main points of dissatisfaction among students.

“What we use [the metric] for is to make sure, on the admissions side, we’re telling the story of Augustana so that student expectations meet student experiences,” Krueger said. “When we do exit interviews, one of the big things we try to get at is ‘What was that gap between what was expected and what was experienced?’”

The top contributors to student dissatisfaction include location closer or farther from home, a change of major to a subject not offered at Augustana, finances, personal or romantic relationships, social fit, academic rigor and mental health.

Krueger said she attributes the rise in retention to increased use of the NavigateAU system for student encouragement and assistance, an increased retention of Journey Scholars and implementation of the Student Success Center’s supplemental instruction program.

“Our investments in Navigate, and as more people start using navigate… that helps,” Herseth Sandlin said. “It’s a really helpful tool for everybody who has retention activities.”

Travis Ahlers, a career and academic planning specialist at the Student Success Center, has been working to implement more of NavigateAU’s features into everyday student life.

“We are constantly thinking about ways we can integrate it with our everyday processes,” Ahlers said. “For example, we have worked to develop a digital advising file that contains important advising documents for students and advisers that are stored in one central digital location.”

Ahlers said the Student Success Center is continuing to find ways to help students get the help they need when they need it.

“The primary goal is to take a proactive approach and present students with resources whenever they need them,” Ahlers said. “We don’t want students to guess where to seek assistance or whom to contact.”

In regard to journey scholars, Krueger said Tyra Hawkins, assistant director of diversity, equity and inclusion, and Willette Capers, assistant vice provost of diversity, equity and inclusion, have launched several initiatives to help Journey Scholars seek assistance.

Hawkins said since the Journey Scholars program began five years ago, retention rates for students of color have increased.

“In addition to the peer mentoring program, we've recently added a Living Learning Community in Solberg Hall and the requirement that all Journey Scholars be enrolled into the same first-year seminar courses,” Hawkins said. “These initiatives allow the scholars to engage with other individuals who look like them, which increases their likelihood of success as systemically non-dominant students at Augie.”

Herseth Sandlin said she also believes supplemental instruction will play a big part in helping students academically in the future. 

Supplemental instruction includes group tutoring sessions, where students can get more information about the content in their courses. SI sessions are taught by tutors that have been successful in the course previously.

Students who sought supplemental instruction, run by CAP specialist Tim Homan, had a persistence rate of 97%.  A persistence rate is the number of students who stay in secondary education from year to year. 

Senior Kait Winston transferred to Augustana from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Rapids after her sophomore year. She said she stayed at Augustana after transferring because she knew fellow students, liked her professors, wanted to complete the pre-physician assistant program and didn’t want to transfer again.

“It made it especially easy to transfer here because I already met new people [from Augustana],” Winston said.