Snow College is First In Graduation Rates

Snow College is first in graduation rates among its comparable colleges in the nation. Not exactly a new revelation, of course. It has been long understood that our excellent faculty and staff help Snow College students succeed. But what is impressive is how much more successful Snow College is over its peers nationwide. Snow College’s four-year graduation rate is 58% compared to its next closest peer, Centralia College (Washington State), with a graduation rate of 36%. The average rate among all its peers is 23.75%. Snow College’s rate is two and a half times higher than average and 22 points above the next closest. Seriously—wow!

The gap is larger for the two-year graduation rate where Snow College students succeed at a rate of 39%, which is more than three times the average rate among all its peers. The average is 12.25%.

Two-year associate and community colleges, as a general rule, have a lower graduation rate than universities. There are many reasons for this including two obvious ones. First, Two-year colleges admit students for vocational programs who have no interest in working toward graduation. These students are looking for a job and want to acquire the skills necessary to get into the workplace as quickly as possible. Secondly, students who are not admitted to a university, because they didn’t apply on time or are not yet academically qualified, go to two-years colleges. Snow College has no admission requirements. We take all comers, regardless of how well prepared they are—and then our faculty and staff lead them to success at exceptional rates. Having said all this—most students who attend Snow College are very prepared for college study. They have many choices in universities to attend. But they choose Snow College for various reasons, including the quality education and opportunities they find here.

Why do I point out the fact that two-year colleges have a lower graduation rate than universities? Is it to explain why our graduation rate is lower than most universities in Utah? Well, not exactly. It is to set up the next set of data and further drive home my point of how successful Snow College is in leading students to graduation.

Drum roll please . . .

Snow College is not only the leader in graduation rates among its two-year peers—it is the leader among all regional universities in Utah. Snow College’s graduation rate is four points higher than Southern Utah University, six points higher than Weber State University, 15 points higher than Dixie State College, and 26 points higher than Utah Valley University. Only the research universities in Utah have a higher rate than Snow College. University of Utah and Utah State University’s rates are only nine points higher than Snow College’s rate.

But before I finish, I need to add one additional point of comparision with the universities. It is within the mission of Snow College to help students working toward a bachelor’s degree to transfer to a four-year school. Universities do not generally have transfer within their mission. Students who want a bachelor’s degree either go directly to a university, which offers the degree, or to a two-year college with the intention of transferring to a university after their time at the college. Many students come to Snow College having earned a semester or more of college credit while in high school. They have a great experience at Snow College and then after a year are prepared to transfer to a university. These students don’t graduate from the College. But they are successes. If we add the graduation rate and the transfer rate prior to graduation Snow College’s completion rate is 78.6%. And then if I add the vocational students, who come only for a certificate or a few classes, well more than 80% of all students who come to Snow College complete their academic goals.

Snow College is the most successful institution in Utah, and nationally among its peers, in leading students to graduation.

Of course, graduation rate is only one measure of success. There are many others, and I will address them all in future posts.

(The source for this post is 2010 data from the IPEDS Data Center and the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education.)

Maple Canyon With The Student Body Officers

The Snow College student body officers spent a week in Ephraim this month training and preparing for the school year. They asked me to join them for an afternoon hike up Maple Canyon, a work class rock climbing destination, a few minutes from Snow College. Of course it didn't take me long to say yes to that request. We had a great day; some of the students faced significant fears (of heights) and did very well. We hiked up Box Canyon, climbed the "water fall" and then rappelled back down. These are a couple shots I took. What a fun day. Spending time with good students is among my favorite things about being a college president.

College Wedding

All in the day of a college president's family. Two of our students from Hong Kong were married last week. And without any family on this side of the Pacific, Kathy and I hosted them for the day at our home before and after the temple. All of our family were involved from Allie doing the bride's hair to Naomi and Abby serving at the wedding breakfast/open house. They were married in the Manti Temple a few miles from campus. We served Cantonese and American food. It was a very fun day. And, of course, I took more than a few pictures. Here are two of the pictures taken at our home.

Our New Karen H. Huntsman Library!

I took these pictures of our new Karen H. Hunsman Library this morning. It is almost complete. It has dozens of small group study rooms, a Borders-like cafe (you can eat anywhere in the library), a large outside terrace off the third level for good weather studying or group events, a large fireplace surrounded with beautiful fossil stone, updated technology, two high tech auditoriums, oh, and, books! It is expected to be a Gold LEED certified building (very green). In front of the library is our Heritage Plaza and in the middle stands our namesakes, Lorenzo and Erastus Snow. I should mention the project came in several million dollars under budget.

Snow College Commencement 2010

The best day of the year is Commencement. I am indebted to Greg Dart for these pictures.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Former president of Brigham Young University and member of the Quorum of The Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, delivered our commencement address this year. Many of our students transfer to BYU after completing their studies at Snow College. It was such a delight to have Elder Holland on our campus, and to hear his encouragement and advice to our graduating students.

Elder Holland's address was entitled, "Voices from the Past" and he pulled together a beautiful collection of life suggestions from such people from the past as Thomas Wolsey, Rudyard Kipling, and John Doone.

Towards the conclusion to his commencement address became more personal. He said, "Above all else you have learned here, may you leave this great school secure in the promise of God's unfailing love for you. You undoubtedly will, as Donne says, have days ahead when you may feel dark, cold, clouded, or eclipsed. But if you desire God's mercy, I promise that help will come to you, "not in the dawning of the day, not as in the bud of the spring, but as the sun at [full] noon. . . . [banishing every] shadow." All occasions invite divine mercy, and in heaven it is always harvest time."

American Government 2010 Tour

At the end of each spring semester my American Government class finishes up the year with a tour of American government and history sites on the East Coast. We spent a day in Boston, New York and Philadelphia and two days in Washington D.C. In route from historic Philadelphia to Valley Forge we stopped at the Philadelphia Museum of Art to run the "Rocky Steps," a place of debatable significance in American history but a fun diversion nevertheless.