College rankings don’t fully capture institutions that serve post-traditional students

College rankings don’t fully capture institutions that serve post-traditional students

Some metrics don’t adequately track certain students, including those attending part time or who start college in months other than the traditional fall semester.

What Defines A ‘Traditional Student’?

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UNCO chapter. Many of us picture young adults in their early twenties when we think of college. Brochures and websites usually depict this demographic tossing their caps into the air, but is this truthful? Most statistics say no; the picture is more diverse than that.  According to the Education Data Initiative, 24.9% of college students in the United States are older than 24. Th…

College Rankings Fail to Consider the Needs of Post-Traditional Students

All colleges and universities strive to top the “Best of” lists, which signal to prospective students the prestige of their institution or programs. But the ways these rankings are determined can put institutions that serve post-traditional students – who are often older, attend school part-time while they work, or don’t take a full course load at an on-campus university each fall – at a disadvantage. Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Syst…