A gradual rise in graduation rates halted in the most recent statistics.
Six-year graduation rates for freshman entering the University of Washington at the main campus in Seattle had been rising for the classes of 2000 through 2003 but slowed last year as the rate for the class of 2004 dropped slightly. Overall, UW is solidly in the middle of the pack in six-year graduation rates among a representative sample, ranking 12 out of 25 peer institutions selected by Washington state’s Higher Education Coordinating Council. The information comes in a report presented at the most recent meeting of the UW Board of Regents, and prepared by the UW's Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity.
For the UW-Seattle entering freshman of the Class of 2000, 74.8 percent graduated within six years. That share bumped up to 75.3 percent for Class of 2001 freshmen, 76.9 percent for the Class of 2002 freshmen and rose to 80.6 percent for Class of 2003 freshmen. For Class of 2004 freshmen though, it dropped marginally, to 80.3 percent.
Six-year graduation rates for Latino, African-American, and Native American entering freshmen at the UW's Seattle campus trended upward over the four years but generally lagged those of international, Asian, Filipino, and white students. For the class of 2004 freshmen, 82.6 percent of Asian students graduated within six years, versus 82.2 percent for students not identified by race, 81.5 percent for whites, 74.5 of Filipinos, 73.9 percent of Latinos, 72 percent of international students, 69.8 percent of African-Americans, 68.8 percent of Native Americans and 56.8 percent of Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders.
Source: Diversity at the University of Washington/Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity, October, 2011
The report’s comparison of UW’s overall six-year graduation rate for freshmen versus other comparable public universities finds that using averages for the classes of 2000 to 2003, UW’s rate of 77 percent is lower than those of the University of Virginia, Cornell (its statutory colleges), UCLA, Michigan, UC San Diego, North Carolina, Florida, UC Davis, UC Irvine, Wisconsin, and Texas A&M. It is better than Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Kentucky, Arizona, Cincinnati, Utah, Hawaii, Illinois, and New Mexico.
There are nearly 30,000 undergraduate students on the UW campus overall, based on figures for the 10th day of classes in the fall of 2010, according to the diversity report. The report said 47.8 percent were white, with Asians by far the next largest group at 23.7 percent of the undergraduate student body. These two groups are followed by students not racially identified, international, Latino, African-American, Filipino, Native American, and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.
This story is originally appeared on Public Data Ferret and is reprinted with permission. Public Data Ferret is a project of the non-profit Public Eye Northwest.
