[Papa John]

I think you misread winflop, Papa John. He wasn't criticizing the graduation rate, but the time it takes to achieve. And the numbers you cite are based on a six-year cohort, not four.

The numbers include both six- and four-year cohorts. The graphs are a bit hard to read, but the UC-system six-year graduation rate has remained pretty constant over the past 15 years--in the 80% range--while the four-year grad rate has improved a lot--from the mid-40% to low-60%. (If you are a California taxpayer, you should care.)

Berkeley's 4-year grad rate is just below 80%, which is much better than the other UCs and the typical public AAU member. And UCLA is looking good at a bit above 70%.

I was talking recently with someone who graduated from Berkeley in the mid-1990s. She was talking about how tough it was to get through C.al in four years, and just assumed it was the same story today. For a variety of reasons, all of the UC campuses--including the Santa Barbara campus where I work--have worked hard since 2000 to improve the retention and grad rates.

[Papa John]

I think you misread winflop, Papa John. He wasn't criticizing the graduation rate, but the time it takes to achieve. And the numbers you cite are based on a six-year cohort, not four.

The numbers include both six- and four-year cohorts. The graphs are a bit hard to read, but the UC-system six-year graduation rate has remained pretty constant over the past 15 years--in the 80% range--while the four-year grad rate has improved a lot--from the mid-40% to low-60%. (If you are a California taxpayer, you should care.)

Berkeley's 4-year grad rate is just below 80%, which is much better than the other UCs and the typical public AAU member. And UCLA is looking good at a bit above 70%.

I was talking recently with someone who graduated from Berkeley in the mid-1990s. She was talking about how tough it was to get through C.al in four years, and just assumed it was the same story today. For a variety of reasons, all of the UC campuses--including the Santa Barbara campus where I work--have worked hard since 2000 to improve the retention and grad rates.