Student Success Initiatives and Goals at New Mexico Tech
The academic success of our students is a priority for New Mexico Tech faculty and staff. Some specific initiatives and resources focused on student success include: (1) Living/Learning Communities for new students, Tutoring for many undergraduate classes, and Peer Mentoring. These programs are all coordinated by our Office of Student Learning. (2) The Office of Student Success), which actively intervenes to assist students experiencing academic difficulties. (3) The the Writing and Communication Lab, where students can get hands-on help with writing assignments.
Retention, Persistence, and Graduation Rate Targets
The Faculty Senate Retention Committee is tasked with analyzing the factors that contribute to retention, persistence, and graduation of students at New Mexico Tech and making recommendations on ways to improve these rates.
Based on committee recommendations, New Mexico Tech's strategic plans have, since 2010, incorporated goals of 80% fall-to-fall retention of first-time full-time freshmen students and 50% for the 6-year graduation rate for first-time full-time freshmen.
More recently, the committee has examined persistence and graduation rates for transfer students. Preliminary analysis shows that transfer students actually persist and graduate at rates similar to freshmen.
The Retention Committee has recommended, and the Faculty Senate has adopted in March of 2019, the following expanded set of goals for freshmen and transfer students:
- For first-time full-time bachelor's degree-seeking freshmen entering in the fall semester,
- Fall-to-fall retention: 80%
- Fall-to-fall-of-third year persistence: 67%
- Six-year graduation: 50%
- For full-time bachelor's degree-seeking transfer students entering in the fall semester,
- Fall-to-fall persistence: 80%
- Fall-to-fall-of-third-year persistence 67%
- Six-year graduation: 50%
The following tables show recent retention, persistence, and graduation rates for freshmen and transfer students. Although there has been substantial improvement in some of these rates in recent years, we are not yet at a point where we are consistently reaching these goals.
Table 1: Freshmen retention, persistence, and 6-year graduation rates
|
Entry Year |
Students |
Fall-to-Fall |
Fall-to-3rd-year |
6-Year Graduation |
|
2006 |
282 |
74.5% |
59.2% |
47.2% |
|
2007 |
241 |
69.3% |
53.9% |
41.5% |
|
2008 |
286 |
71.7% |
59.4% |
45.1% |
|
2009 |
255 |
73.7% |
63.5% |
49.0% |
|
2010 |
333 |
73.9% |
62.5% |
49.3% |
|
2011 |
324 |
74.1% |
63.3% |
47.2% |
|
2012 |
346 |
76.6% |
67.6% |
55.8% |
|
2013 |
316 |
78.8% |
64.2% |
51.0% |
|
2014 |
286 |
75.2% |
61.5% |
56.3% |
|
2015 |
338 |
76.9% |
66.6% |
56.8% |
|
2016 |
301 |
74.4% |
66.5% |
55.2% |
|
2017 |
239 |
75.3% |
63.2% |
|
|
2018 |
305 |
76.7% |
68.2% | |
|
2019 |
250 |
81.2% |
69.6% | |
|
2020 |
276 |
76.5% |
63.0% | |
|
2021 |
298 |
75.2% |
||
|
2022 |
299 |
|
Table 2: Persistence and 6-year graduation rates for transfer students.
|
Entry Year |
Number |
Fall-to-fall |
Fall-to-third-year |
6-year Graduation |
|
2006 |
56 |
64.3% |
53.6% |
44.6% |
|
2007 |
69 |
73.9% |
60.9% |
52.2% |
|
2008 |
59 |
69.5% |
50.9% |
44.1% |
|
2009 |
55 |
74.6% |
65.5% |
56.4% |
|
2010 |
73 |
64.4% |
63.0% |
49.3% |
|
2011 |
90 |
73.3% |
64.4% |
51.1% |
|
2012 |
100 |
70.0% |
60.2% |
53.0% |
|
2013 |
98 |
79.6% |
71.4% |
63.3% |
|
2014 |
99 |
70.7% |
64.7% |
50.5% |
|
2015 |
65 |
73.9% |
67.7% |
64.6% |
|
2016 |
70 |
78.6% |
75.7% |
67.1% |
|
2017 |
78 |
75.6% |
73.1% |
|
|
2018 |
60 |
78.3% |
66.7% | |
|
2019 |
56 |
78.6% |
69.6% | |
|
2020 |
48 |
70.8% |
54.2% | |
|
2021 |
41 |
73.2% |
||
|
2022 |
42 |
|
Student Success Data
Our Office of Institutional Research maintains up-to-date reports relevant to student success, including recent and historical retention and graduation rates.