Midterm Progress Reports: How a Campus-wide Effort Can Impact Student Success and
Retention
Presenters:
Shannon Dobranski, Director of Pre-Graduate and Pre-Professional Advising, Georgia Institute of Technology,
Shannon.Dobranski@gatech.edu
Debbie Pearson, Retention and Graduation Coordinator, Georgia Institute of Technology,
Debbie.Pearson@gatech.edu
Georgia Tech Campus Resources for Students with Midterm Unsatisfactory Grades
Academic Advising Meetings
Consultations with Faculty and Teaching Assistants
Dean of Students
Counseling Center
ADAPTS – Office of Disability Services
Meetings with housing staff, financial aid, first-year seminar instructor, Office of International Education
(OIE)
Tutoring Options
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Center for Academic Success
OMED Educational Services (Office of Minority Education)
Clough Commons
Various schools
Housing
Center for Academic Success Resources
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“To Drop or Not” Workshop
Academic Coaching
Supplemental Instruction (PLUS)
Reboot (6-week series on success topics)
Individual success workshops and videos
Mentoring Options
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Housing
OMED Educational Services
Women in Engineering
GT 1000 Team Leaders
Methods for Observing Outcomes
Faculty response rate  Students with U’s by classification and numbers of U’s  U-to-final-grade
convergence  Course withdrawal trends  Courses with a disproportionate number of U’s 
Percentage of students with two or more U’s participating in mandatory advisement 
Percentage of students with one or more U’s who use Center for Academic Success services 
Retention and graduation rates for students with U’s.
Georgia Tech Spring 2015 Outcomes
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Faculty response rate: 96.7%
•
3,255 U’s assigned to 2,479 students in 1000- and 2000-level courses
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First-year students with 2 or more U’s: 308
•
% of first-year students with 2 or more U’s who participated in academic advising: 94%
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% of students with 1 or more U’s who used Center for Academic Success: 41%
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Withdrawal rate for courses in which U’s were earned: 15%
•
Courses in which at least one in five students earned a midterm U:
- Physics I (38%)
- Physics II (35%)
- Calculus II (23%)
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U to A/B/C/S convergence rate: 53%
Grade
A
B
C
S
D
F
W
U
I
Number
253
886
1191
92
615
573
555
12
25
%
6.0
21.1
28.3
2.2
14.6
13.6
13.2
0.3
0.6
Georgia Tech Trends
Faculty response rates have been increasing . . .
. . . and student withdrawal rates have been decreasing
Final grades are highly predictive for retention
For students with a midterm U in fall 2013 who were able to pull up their grade to A/B/C/S by
the end of the term, 97.5% returned for spring 2014 and 93.9% returned for fall 2014.
For students with a midterm U in fall 2013 who earned a D/F/W/U for the course, 85.1%
returned for spring 2014 and only 75.0% returned for fall 2014.
Graduation rates for students with midterm U’s (average rates for past five years)
First-time freshmen with no U’s: 94.0% graduated within six years
Transfer students with no midterm U’s: 84.6% graduated within four years
First-time freshmen with only one U: 86.0% graduated within six years
Transfer students with only one U: 77.4% for transfer students and 86.0% for first-time
freshmen.
Overall Retention and Graduation Rates at Georgia Tech
96% first-to-second year retention (2014 cohort)
85% six-year graduation rate - first-time freshmen (2009 cohort)