Every fall, more than 550 freshmen walk onto Ohio Wesleyan’s campus, full of nervous anticipation as to what college will bring. They spend a year making friends, taking classes and adapting to life away from home. However, only about 78 percent of those same students will return the next fall for their sophomore year. The question is, why are so many people leaving OWU? 

To answer this, universities look at several different types of data, with retention rates being one of the most telling. The retention rates are measured as the percentage of students who return to the college the following year. The data can calculate the return rate between any two years, but it is most commonly examined for the re-enrollment between freshmen and sophomore year. Dale Swartzentruber, associate dean for institutional research, said this measurement is what the school usually pays most attention to. 

“The most important thing we look at is between freshmen and sophomore year, because that is where we lose the most,” Swartzentruber said. “That’s what the trustees want to know.” 

OWU has the lowest retention rate of all the Ohio Five schools. With all of the schools in the consortium being similar in size and structure, there is a high distribution of retention rates. Oberlin College has the highest retention rate, at 93 percent, followed by Kenyon at 92 percent. When comparing the schools in the conference, there are few major differences that might explain the 15 percent discrepancy in retention rates. This leaves the university to find out what exactly determines these numbers. 

Alex Lesser, the problem begins as early as admission to OWU. 

“It’s easy to get into this school, but then the classes are really challenging,” Lesser said. “They should make it more challenging to get in. So many kids fail out.” 

Over the past five years, the retention rate has improved from 78 percent to 84 percent. Oddly so has its admission rate gone down strongly. 

For the class of 2010, 84 percent re-enrolled for their sophomore year, a jump of 4.6 percent  over the previous year. 

What are your thoughts on retention numbers? Is it solely an admission problem or does it come down to student support, financial aid, college fit and if so, how can we help the OWU administration answer this question?