CCU continues efforts to improve freshman retention, graduation rates

CONWAY, S.C. (WMBF) - Coastal Carolina University is seeing its freshman retention rate get a good boost after efforts to improve graduation rates.

CCU spokesperson Martha Hunn said the university’s graduation rate for first-time students who graduate in six years or less is 46%.

The last group of graduates included in the 46% graduation rate statistic entered CCU in the fall of 2015.

CCU provost Daniel Ennis said that classes’ retention rate as freshman was 65%, but increased to 73.4 percent for the class entering in the fall of 2019.

According to Ennis, CCU’s admissions standards have improved to attract better-prepared students.

“Both retention and graduation rates are key indicators of how a university is doing in helping students along the most important of educational pathways: the road to completion,” CCU President Michael Benson said. “While Coastal Carolina University has made progress in both areas of late, we still have more to do. Our first-step goal is to be above the 50% six-year graduation mark. We intend to achieve that and even move above that mark in the near future.”

In the fall of 2015, a freshman’s average high school grade-point average was a 3.42. It went up to 3.69 for freshman entering in fall 2020.