By Taylor Popielarz
There’s a good chance you know someone who has transferred in, or out of, Quinnipiac. But how many students does Quinnipiac lose each year as a result of students transferring?
“Our current retention rate is about 85-percent,” said Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs Andrew Delohery. “Historically, it’s between 85 and 87-percent [at Quinnipiac], which means we lose about 15-percent of our freshmen.”
Retention is a rating scale that describes the percentage of freshmen students who return to a college for their second year.
According to Delohery, Quinnipiac students are transferring for reasons like economics, not fitting in, or having varied expectations.
“Expectations are important because if expectations aren’t met, students leave,” Delohery said.
He also discussed how Quinnipiac uses numerous surveys to try and learn why students decide to leave.
Former Quinnipiac student Sean Valoroso said in a phone interview to Q30 News that he transferred at the end of his freshmen year not because he didn’t like Quinnipiac, but because he did not know what he wanted to pursue.
“The biggest factor was definitely the deciding factor that I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life,” Valoroso said. “And I didn’t really want to spend sixty thousand dollars on a school unless I was completely sure what I wanted to do.”
Delohery said Quinnipiac’s goal is to reach a retention rate of 90-percent. According to the school’s 2014 institutional scorecard, retention is currently at 84.7-percent.
