A Comparison of Honors Students to Other High Performing Students
Executive Summary
This study examines differences and similarities in the retention, persistence, and degree
attainment rates of the 2005 through 2010 cohorts of first-time full-time students by
Honors Program status. While the focus of this study was to be on Honors students
compared to other high performing students, I also compared the other high performing
students to all other non-Honors students. Therefore, each cohort was divided into three
groups for comparisons of retention, persistence, and graduation rates.
The first group in each cohort was made up of students in the Honors program. I decided
to define as non-Honors high performing (Non-Honors HP) any students with SAT scores
or high school GPAs (GPA) that were at or above the 90th percentile for the entire
cohort. The third group was made up of students who were neither in the Honors or nonHonors HP group. They are identified as “Other non-Honors” hereafter. Appendix I on
page 13 has details on the percentile scores for each measure in each cohort. Details of
the retention, persistence, and graduation rates and the statistical significance of
differences between them, if any, are discussed in detail later in the report.
Overall, the Honors Program students out performed both comparison groups. Somewhat
surprisingly, the non-Honors HP students tended to do no better than the other nonHonors students with few exceptions. Figures 1 through 8 show the progress of the
different cohorts. The consistency of the differences across cohorts is remarkable.
Figure 1: Progress of the 2005 Cohort by Honors Program Status
100%
90%
80%
Honors
70%
60%
Non-Honors
HP
50%
Other NonHonors
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Ret. 2nd
Year
Ret. 3rd
Year
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Grad. or
Ret. 4th
Year
Grad. or
Ret. 5th
Year
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Grad. or
Ret. 6th
Year
Grad. or
Ret. 7th
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Figure 2: 2005 Cohort Graduation Rates by Honors Program Status
70%
60%
50%
Honors
40%
Non-Honors
HP
30%
Other NonHonors
20%
10%
0%
Four Year Graduation
Rate
Five Year Graduation
Rate
Six Year Graduation
Rate
Figure 3: Progress of the 2006 Cohort by Honors Program Status
100%
90%
80%
Honors
70%
60%
Non-Honors
HP
50%
Other NonHonors
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Ret. 2nd Year Ret. 3rd Year
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Grad. or Ret.
4th Year
Grad. or Ret.
5th Year
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Grad. or Ret.
6th Year
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Figure 4: 2006 Cohort Graduation Rates by Honors Program Status
60%
50%
Honors
40%
Non-Honors
HP
30%
Other NonHonors
20%
10%
0%
Four Year Graduation Rate
Five Year Graduation Rate
Figure 5: Progress of the 2007 Cohort by Honors Program Status
100%
90%
80%
Honors
70%
60%
Non-Honors
HP
50%
Other NonHonors
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Ret. 2nd Year
Ret. 3rd Year
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Figure 6: 2007 Cohort 4-Year Graduation Rate by Honors Program Status
40%
35%
30%
Honors
25%
Non-Honors
HP
20%
Other NonHonors
15%
10%
5%
0%
Four Year Graduation Rate
Figure 7: Progress of the 2008 Cohort by Honors Program Status
100%
90%
80%
70%
Honors
60%
Non-Honors
HP
Other NonHonors
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Ret. 2nd Year
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Figure 8: Progress of the 2009 Cohort by Honors Program Status
100%
90%
80%
70%
Honors
60%
Non-Honors
HP
50%
Other NonHonors
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Ret. 2nd Year
Ret. 3rd Year
Detailed Narrative
Differences in Demographics, SAT Scores, and High School GPAs on Entry
Both the Honors and non-Honors HP groups tended to have a lower percentage of U.S.
resident self-identified minorities. The low was for the 2008 cohort where only about
16% of the Honors students were minorities. No Honors cohort had more than 30%
minorities. In each cohort, more than 50% of the other non-Honors students selfidentified as minorities.
The other non-Honors students had lower SAT scores and GPAs than either the Honors
students or the non-Honors HP students. The Honors students had similar SAT scores to
those of the non-Honors HP students in two of the six years and similar GPAs in three of
the six years.
The Honors students were much more successful than the non-Honors HP students even
when similarly qualified. In the 2007 cohort, the two groups had a similar percentage of
minorities and women and had statistically similar SAT scores and GPAs. However, the
Honors students were about 20 percentage points more likely to return, persist and
graduate by fall 2011. The differences were statistically significant for each measure.
When the non-Honors HP students were compared to the other non-Honors students,
there were no statistically significant differences, and the non-Honors HP students
actually trailed the other non-Honors students slightly in five of the measures.
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In the 2008 cohort, the Honors and non-Honors HP group also had similar percentages of
minorities and women. SAT scores and GPAs also were similar. The Honors students had
significantly higher success rates on the three measures for that cohort than did the nonHonors HP students. The non-Honors HP and the other non-Honors group had success
rates that were statistically indistinguishable. A similar pattern existed in the 2009 and
2010 cohorts. It was not as pronounced in the 2005 and 2006 cohorts.
Each cohort will be discussed in detail in the next section of the report.
Detailed Results
The 2005 Cohort of First-time Full-time Students
The 2005 cohort consisted of 720 individuals. All incoming students submitted either a
high school GPA or SAT scores. A score of at least 1220 on the SATs or 3.70 for high
school GPA was the standard for non-Honors HP.
The three groups differed somewhat demographically as well as on academic measures.
The Honors and non-Honors HP groups had significantly fewer self identified U.S.
resident minority students than did the other non-Honors group. The non-Honors HP
group had a lower proportion of women than did the other non-Honors students. The
mean SAT scores and mean high school GPAs are significantly different for each group
compared to each of the other groups. Details are presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Demographics, SAT Scores, and High School GPA for the 2005 Cohort
Number of Students
Percent of Cohort
Percent Minority
Percent Female
Mean Total SAT Scores
H.S. GPA
Honors
45
6.3%
30.0%
60.0%
1249
3.59
Non-Honors HP
98
13.6%
39.8%
48.0%
1152
3.37
Other Non-Honors
577
80.1%
51.6%
59.5%
964
2.92
I compared the success rates of Honors students to that of the non-Honors HP group first.
The Honors students were significantly more likely to return for the third year than were
the non-Honors HP students. They were also more likely to persist or graduate. The
differences on the graduation measures are particularly large. Details of the differences
on the success measures are presented in Table 2.
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Table 2: Comparison of 2005 Honors to non-Honors HP Students
Non-Honors
HP
65.3%
54.1%
50.0%
52.0%
48.0%
45.9%
43.9%
19.4%
34.7%
39.8%
Honors
80.0%
73.3%
66.7%
66.7%
64.4%
64.4%
62.2%
35.6%
55.6%
62.2%
Returned Fall ‘06
Returned Fall ‘07
Returned Fall ‘08
Grad or Returned Fall ‘08
Grad or Returned Fall ‘09
Grad or Returned Fall ‘10
Grad or Returned Fall ‘11
Graduated by Fall ‘09
Graduated by Fall ‘10
Graduated by Fall ‘11
Difference
14.7%
19.3%
16.7%
14.6%
16.5%
18.5%
18.4%
16.2%
20.9%
22.4%
Significance
No
<.05
No
No
No
<.05
<.05
<.05
<.05
<.05
While not doing as well as the Honors students, the non-Honors HP students might be
expected to do better than the other non-Honors students. However, when compared to
the other non-Honors students, the non-Honors HP students did better on only one
success measure. A higher proportion of them graduated within four years. On the early
retention and persistence measures, the non-Honors HP students tended to do a bit worse
than the other non-Honors students, but not significantly so. Details are presented in
Table 3.
Table 3: Comparison of non-Honors HP to Other non-Honors Students
Non-Honors Students
Returned Fall ‘06
Returned Fall ‘07
Returned Fall ‘08
Grad or Returned Fall ‘08
Grad or Returned Fall ‘09
Grad or Returned Fall ‘10
Grad or Returned Fall ‘11
Graduated by Fall ‘09
Graduated by Fall ‘10
Graduated by Fall ‘11
High Performing
Not Honors
65.3%
54.1%
50.0%
52.0%
48.0%
45.9%
43.9%
19.4%
34.7%
39.8%
Other Not
Honors
70.5%
59.1%
55.5%
55.5%
50.3%
47.9%
46.4%
11.3%
29.8%
38.0%
Difference
-5.2%
-5.0%
-5.5%
-3.4%
-2.3%
-2.0%
-2.6%
8.1%
4.9%
1.8%
Significance
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
<.05
No
No
The 2006 Cohort of First-time Full-time Students
The 2006 cohort consisted of 846 individuals. All incoming students submitted either a
high school GPA or SAT scores. The three groups were developed the same way as for
the 2005 cohort. The non-Honors HP group was made up of students with 1220 or higher
SAT scores or 3.68 or higher GPAs. The three groups did not differ as much
demographically as the 2005 cohort. The Honors and non-Honors HP groups were
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similar on every measure. Other non-Honors were similar by gender, but had a higher
percentage of minorities than either of the other groups. That group also trailed both the
Honors and non-Honors HP groups significantly on SAT scores and high school GPA.
Details are presented in Table 4.
Table 4: Demographics, SAT Scores, and High School GPA for the 2006 Cohort
Number of Students
Percent of Cohort
Percent Minority
Percent Female
Mean Total SAT Scores
H.S. GPA
Honors
64
7.6%
33.9%
43.8%
1180
3.51
Non-Honors HP
104
12.3%
38.7%
41.3%
1140
3.39
Other Non-Honors
678
80.1%
52.1%
42.9%
963
2.87
The differences in success rates between Honors and Non-Honors HP students were not
quite as pronounced in the 2006 cohort. Although the Honors students were more than 10
percentage points higher than the non-Honors HP students on every measure, the
differences were significant on only three of the seven measures. There was a particularly
large difference in retention to the second year. Details are presented in Table 5.
Table 5: Comparison of 2006 Honors to non-Honors HP Students
Non-Honors
HP
72.1%
61.5%
57.7%
56.7%
50.0%
19.2%
40.4%
Honors
90.6%
73.4%
73.4%
67.2%
65.6%
25.0%
53.1%
Returned Fall ‘07
Returned Fall ‘08
Grad or Returned Fall ‘09
Grad or Returned Fall ‘10
Grad or Returned Fall ‘11
Graduated by Fall ‘10
Graduated by Fall ‘11
Difference
18.5%
11.9%
15.7%
10.5%
15.6%
5.8%
12.7%
Significance
<.01
No
<.05
No
<.05
No
No
In the 2006 cohort, the non-Honors HP students differed from the other non-Honors
students on two of the seven measures.
Table 6: Comparison of 2006 non-Honors HP to Other non-Honors Students
Non-Honors Students
Returned Fall ‘07
Returned Fall ‘08
Grad or Returned Fall ‘09
Grad or Returned Fall ‘10
Grad or Returned Fall ‘11
Graduated by Fall ‘10
Graduated by Fall ‘11
Non-Honors
HP
72.1%
61.5%
57.7%
56.7%
50.0%
19.2%
40.4%
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Other NonHonors
73.6%
56.9%
50.4%
46.2%
42.9%
10.3%
28.9%
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Difference
-1.5%
4.6%
7.3%
10.6%
7.1%
8.9%
11.5%
Significance
No
No
No
<.05
No
No
<.05
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The 2007 Cohort of First-time Full-time Students
The Honors students and non-Honors HP students were statistically similar in the
percentages of minorities and women and on SAT scores and GPA. The other nonHonors students had a higher percentage of minorities and lower SAT scores and HS
GPAs than both of the other groups. The standard for high performing in the 2007 cohort
was a 1210 SAT score or 3.72 HS GPA.
Table 7: Demographics, SAT Scores, and High School GPA for the 2007 Cohort
Number of Students
Percent of Cohort
Percent Minority
Percent Female
Mean Total SAT Scores
H.S. GPA
Honors
77
8.1%
27.1%
36.4%
1179
3.52
Non-Honors HP
125
13.2%
37.7%
40.0%
1140
3.52
Other Non-Honors
747
78.7%
53.5%
41.9%
960
2.93
Although similar on SAT scores and HS GPA, the Honors students had significantly
higher success rates on every success measure than did the non-Honors HP group.
Table 8: Comparison of 2007 Honors to non-Honors HP Students
High Performance Only
Returned Fall ‘08
Returned Fall ‘09
Returned Fall '10
Grad or Returned Fall ‘10
Grad or Returned Fall ‘11
Graduated by Fall ‘11
Non-Honors
HP
70.4%
55.2%
51.2%
52.0%
48.0%
16.8%
Honors
89.6%
79.2%
77.9%
77.9%
68.8%
37.7%
Difference
19.2%
24.0%
26.7%
25.9%
20.8%
20.9%
Significance
<.01
<.001
<.001
<.01
<.001
<.001
The non-Honors HP and other non-Honors had rates indistinguishable from each other.
Table 9: Comparison of 2007 non-Honors HP to Other non-Honors Students
Non-Honors Students
Returned Fall ‘08
Returned Fall ‘09
Returned Fall '10
Grad or Returned Fall ‘10
Grad or Returned Fall ‘11
Graduated by Fall ‘11
Non-Honors
HP
70.4%
55.2%
51.2%
52.0%
48.0%
16.8%
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Other NonHonors
74.0%
57.7%
53.7%
53.7%
49.8%
12.6%
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Difference
-3.6%
-2.5%
-2.5%
-1.7%
-1.8%
4.2%
Significance
No
No
No
No
No
No
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The 2008 Cohort of First-time Full-time Students
In the 2008 cohort, the Honors group had a significantly lower percentage of minorities
than did either of the other groups. They also had significantly higher SAT scores than
the other groups. The HS GPAs for the Honors and non-Honors HP groups were
statistically similar. Details are presented in Table 11. The standard for high performing
in the 2008 cohort was a 1210 SAT score or 3.67 HS GPA.
Table 10: Demographics, SAT Scores, and High School GPA for the 2008 Cohort
2008
Number of Students
Percent of Cohort
Percent Minority
Percent Female
Mean Total SAT Scores
H.S. GPA
Honors
51
5.3%
16.3%
60.8%
1246
3.54
Non-Honors HP
114
11.8%
38.1%
57.9%
1145
3.51
Other Non-Honors
805
83.0%
52.8%
57.8%
955
2.91
The Honors group had significantly better success rates than the non-Honors HP group
on each of the three success measures. Details are presented in Table 11.
Table 11: Comparison of 2008 Honors to non-Honors HP Students
High Performance Only
Returned Fall ‘09
Returned Fall '10
Grad or Returned Fall ‘11
Honors
92.2%
82.4%
78.4%
Non-Honors HP
77.2%
60.5%
53.3%
Difference
15.0%
21.8%
25.1%
Significance
<.05
<.01
<.01
Again the success rates for the non-Honors HP were no better than those of the other nonHonors students.
Table 12: Comparison of 2008 non-Honors HP to Other non-Honors Students
Non-Honors Students
Returned Fall ‘09
Returned Fall '10
Grad or Returned Fall
‘11
Non-Honors
HP
77.2%
60.5%
Other Non-Honors
76.3%
58.4%
Difference
0.9%
2.1%
Significance
No
No
53.3%
53.5%
-0.2%
No
The 2009 Cohort of First-time Full-time Students
The 2009 cohort had an especially small number of students in the Honors program. With
numbers that small, any differences must be very large to attain statistical significance.
The Honors group had a higher percentage of women and higher SAT scores and mean
HS GPA than the non-Honors HP group. The standard for high performing in the 2009
cohort was a 1200 SAT score or 3.73 HS GPA. Details are presented in Table 13.
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Table 13: Demographics, SAT Scores, and High School GPA for the 2009 Cohort
Number of Students
Percent of Cohort
Percent Minority
Percent Female
Mean Total SAT Scores
H.S. GPA
Honors
44
4.7%
27.5%
70.5%
1215
3.70
Non-Honors HP
135
14.4%
41.5%
50.4%
1153
3.44
Other Non-Honors
757
80.9%
50.1%
58.8%
969
2.92
Honors students were significantly more likely than non-Honors HP students to return for
the second year. Although they were more than 15 percentage points more likely to
persist to the third year, that difference was not statistically significant.
Table 14: Comparison of 2009 Honors to non-Honors HP Students
High Performance Only
Returned Fall '10
Returned Fall ‘11
Honors
97.7%
79.5%
Non-Honors HP
77.8%
64.4%
Difference
20.0%
15.1%
Significance
<.01
No
Again, the non-Honors HP students showed no significant differences in success rates
compared to the other non-Honors students. Table 15 displays the details.
Table 15: Comparison of 2009 non-Honors HP to Other non-Honors Students
Non-Honors Students
Returned Fall '10
Returned Fall ‘11
Non-Honors
HP
77.7%
64.4%
Other NonHonors
73.2%
56.1%
Difference
4.5%
8.3%
Significance
No
No
The 2010 Cohort of First-time Full-time Students
Minorities continued to be under-represented in the Honors group in the 2010 cohort. In
2010, the Honors group had significantly more women and fewer minorities than did the
non-Honors HP group, and they also had higher SAT scores and HS GPAs. The standard
for high performing in the 2010 cohort was a 1200 SAT score or 3.68 HS GPA
Table 16: Demographics, SAT Scores, and High School GPA for the 2010 Cohort
2009
Number of Students
Percent of Cohort
Percent Minority
Percent Female
Mean Total SAT Scores
H.S. GPA
Honors
58
5.4%
26.3%
69.0%
1212
3.71
Non-Honors HP
138
12.9%
43.4%
46.4%
1154
3.40
Other Non-Honors
873
81.7%
54.1%
56.4%
975
2.91
The 2010 Honors students returned for 2011 at a statistically significant rate more than 20
points higher than the non-Honors HP students.
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Table 17: Comparison of 2010 Honors to non-Honors HP Students
High Performance Only
Returned Fall ‘11
Honors
89.7%
Non-Honors HP
68.8%
Difference
20.8%
Significance
<.01
The non-Honors HP students also trailed the other non-Honors students, but not
significantly.
Table 18: Comparison of 2010 non-Honors HP to Other non-Honors Students
Non-Honors Students
Returned Fall ‘11
NonHonors HP
68.8%
Other Non-Honors
75.0%
Difference
-6.2%
Significance
No
Conclusions
While the non-Honors HP are not exactly like the Honors Program students in
demographics or in incoming GPAs and SAT scores, they are similar enough that they
might be expected to perform more like the Honors students than the non-Honors
students who entered with significantly lower high school GPAs and SAT scores.
However, that was generally not the case.
Why this is so is unknown. It may simply be a matter of motivation with high performing
students who do not choose the Honors Program if it is offered seeking a less challenging
path. However, it may be that the resources and attention provided to the Honors Program
students account for the differences in success rates and that if a greater percentage of
high performing students chose the Honors Program that they too would have greater
success and persist to graduation at higher levels.
Efforts should also be made to have the percentage of self-identified minority students in
the Honors Program come more in line with their representation in the cohort as a whole.
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Appendix I: SAT and High School GPA Summaries by Cohort
Table 19: Total SAT and High School GPA Summary for the 2005 Cohort,
By Percentile Rank
Percentile
1%
5%
10%
25%
50%
75%
90%
95%
99%
Total SAT Score
680
760
800
900
1000
1110
1220
1290
1400
High School GPA
2.11
2.30
2.42
2.64
3.00
3.38
3.70
3.85
4.20
Table 20: Total SAT and High School GPA Summary for the 2006 Cohort,
By Percentile Rank
Percentile
1%
5%
10%
25%
50%
75%
90%
95%
99%
Total SAT Score
640
740
800
890
1000
1110
1220
1280
1410
High School GPA
2.06
2.28
2.39
2.62
2.97
3.31
3.68
3.87
4.17
Table 21: Total SAT and High School GPA Summary for the 2007 Cohort,
By Percentile Rank
Percentile
1%
5%
10%
25%
50%
75%
90%
95%
99%
Total SAT Score
680
750
800
910
1000
1100
1210
1250
1370
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High School GPA
2.18
2.39
2.48
2.68
3.03
3.39
3.72
3.88
4.24
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Table 22: Total SAT and High School GPA Summary for the 2008 Cohort,
By Percentile Rank
Percentile
1%
5%
10%
25%
50%
75%
90%
95%
99%
Total SAT Score
660
740
790
880
990
1100
1210
1270
1390
High School GPA
2.15
2.34
2.46
2.66
2.97
3.33
3.67
3.89
4.06
Table 23: Total SAT and High School GPA Summary for the 2009 Cohort,
By Percentile Rank
Percentile
1%
5%
10%
25%
50%
75%
90%
95%
99%
Total SAT Score
710
770
820
910
1010
1110
1200
1250
1350
High School GPA
2.05
2.24
2.47
2.67
3.00
3.36
3.73
3.93
4.24
Table 24: Total SAT and High School GPA Summary for the 2010 Cohort,
By Percentile Rank
Percentile
1%
5%
10%
25%
50%
75%
90%
95%
99%
Total SAT Score
750
800
840
910
1000
1090
1200
1240
1400
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High School GPA
2.07
2.29
2.47
2.67
2.98
3.34
3.68
3.88
4.22
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