FAU and FIU's six-year graduation rates were both 41 percent in 2010-2011. Those two universities barely graduate more students than FAMU in six years despite the fact that they only admit a very small number of students who don't meet the State University System of Florida's (SUS) standard admissions requirements.
"FAMU's four-year graduation rate is a dismal 12 percent;
its six-year rate is 39 percent — the state's lowest," the Orlando Sentinel
editorial board wrote. "That owes, in part, to [former President James H.] Ammons'
insistence on admitting applicants who are unprepared for college rigor.
Students who flunk out or graduate with the state's highest debt loads."
An article by Sentinel reporter Denise-Marie Balona
suggested that FAMU’s decision to admit a large number of students through the
profile assessment process is a major reason that its six-year graduation rate
isn’t higher.
"In recent years, FAMU has opened its doors to a
skyrocketing number of students who did not meet the most basic admissions
criteria," Balona wrote. "Over the past several years, FAMU has hiked up its
percentage of so-called "profile admits," students whose grades or SAT scores
fell short, who did not take enough math in high school or who failed to meet
other requirements."
FAMU has seen an increase in its percentage of First-Time-In-College
(FTIC) profile admits as a result of a recent change to the SUS minimum admissions requirements. Back in 2006, a new Florida law
raised the mathematics requirement for FTIC freshmen from three units at
Algebra I or higher to four units at Algebra I or higher.
FAMU's profile admit rate in 2010-2011 was 51 percent. But
even despite that fact, its six-year graduation rate was only 2 percentage points lower that of FAU and FIU. Both FAU and FIU had six-year graduation rates of 41
percent in 2010-2011. FAU's profile admit rate was one percent that academic
year and FIU’s was 0.7 percent (In the SUS Work Plan links, the graduation rates are available in the tables entitled "Operational Efficiency" under the heading "Key Performance Indicators." For profile admit rates, check the tables entitled "Planned Growth by Student Type" under the heading "Enrollment Planning").
FAMU students poorer; work more hours to pay for school
Both FAU and FIU also had a much smaller number of Pell Grant
recipients than FAMU in 2010-2011. The 2010-2011 Pell Grant rates were as follows: FAMU
(67.1 percent), FAU (38.4 percent), and FIU (50 percent). This also suggests that FAMU students might be working more hours to pay for college and living expenses than students at other SUS schools.
The numbers show that FAMU’s high number of profile admits
and students who require need-based financial aid have not stopped it from
graduating its students at nearly the same pace as FAU and FIU. If profile admits were really the biggest factor preventing FAMU from having a higher six-year graduation rate, then its current six-year graduation rate wouldn't be anywhere close to that of FAU and FIU, two universities that take in very few profile admits.
The main problem that has held back FAMU’s six-year graduation
rate is that the university’s students typically reduce their course loads as
the cost of college goes up. But FAMU is addressing that problem with a large
variety of steps that have helped reduce the cost of college. FAMU’s lower
division students (freshman and sophomores) have actually topped their peers at
the University of Florida in average course loads for the past three years.
The good news in the area of student course loads shows that
FAMU is on its way to a higher six-year graduation rate. But don’t expect to read
about that in the Orlando Sentinel.