Student Right-to-Know
Graduation and Transfer-Out Rates
What is Student Right-To-Know?
Student Right-To-Know is a federal law that requires all colleges and universities to disclose certain information to students. This handout provides the information that a college must provide to students on graduation rates and transfer-out rates for full-time students seeking degrees at Minnesota West Community and Technical College.
What is a graduation rate and what is a transfer-out rate?
Federal regulations specify how to calculate the graduation and transfer rates. The rates come from a study of Minnesota West Community and Technical College students who started at the college in the Fall 2022. The study includes all first-time students who enrolled full-time that fall and were seeking to earn a degree at the college. The graduation rate is the percentage of these students who graduated from the college within three years. The transfer-out rate is the percentage of these students who did not graduate from the college, but instead transferred to another college or university within three years.
What do I need to know about these rates?
These rates do not report on all students at Minnesota West Community and Technical College. The 312 first-time, full-time students in the study were 9 percent of all undergraduate students enrolled in Fall 2022.
What are the graduation and transfer-out rates for Minnesota West
Community and Technical College students and how do they compare to rates for other
colleges?
- The graduation rate for Minnesota West Community and Technical College was 60 percent.
- The transfer-out rate for Minnesota West Community and Technical College was 12 percent.
- The combination of the graduation rate and the transfer-out rate was 72 percent.
The national average combined rate for similar colleges was 51 percent.
Why don’t more Minnesota West Community and Technical College students graduate or transfer in three years?
- Since Minnesota West Community and Technical College has an "open door" mission, many new students need to take developmental courses to improve reading, writing, or math skills before taking other college courses;
- Some students take jobs before they graduate;
- Students who switch from full-time to part-time enrollment or “stop out” for one or more semesters are more likely to take more than three years to graduate;
- Other students delay their education for personal, family or financial reasons.
Disaggregated Student Right-to-Know Graduation and Transfer-out Rates
| Minnesota West Community and Technical College | Graduation Rate | Transfer-out Rate | Combined Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Cohort | 60% | 12% | 72% |
| American Indian or Alaska Native | * | * | * |
| Asian | * | * | * |
| Black or African American | * | * | * |
| Hispanic of any race | 51% | 13% | 64% |
| Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | * | * | * |
| U.S. Nonresident | * | * | * |
| Two or more races | * | * | * |
| Unknown race and ethnicity | * | * | * |
| White | 73% | 7% | 80% |
| Female | 55% | 11% | 66% |
| Male | 62% | 12% | 74% |
| Pell Grant Recipient | * | * | * |
| Received neither Pell nor Subsidized Stafford Loans | 63% | 12% | 75% |
| Received Subsidized Stafford Loans, but no Pell | * | * | * |
* Suppressed to protect student privacy.
Due to rounding, percentages may not always appear to add up.