Retention and graduation rates reflect the progress of our students from their entry cohorts to degree attainment at DePaul.

Freshman cohorts consist of students who enter DePaul as full-time, first-time, degree-seeking students during the fall quarter of a given academic year. The number of freshman in these cohorts may differ slightly from the total number of freshman in other sections of the Fact File, due to a small number of students who are enrolled part-time or as non-degree which are not included in these rates.

Transfer and Master’s cohorts consist of students who enter DePaul as new, degree-seeking students in the fiscal year (summer, fall, winter, spring terms); they can enter at either a full-time or part-time basis.

Retention and graduation rates are reported based on each consecutive fall quarters, keeping in-line with federal reporting standards.

The first-year retention rate represents the proportion of the original Freshman/Transfer/Masters cohort that re-enrolled in the subsequent fall quarter, at census.
Example: Of the 2,939 Freshman in the 2023 cohort, 85.5% were enrolled during the fall quarter one year later (see Percent Returned in Table 9-1). This is 2,513 Freshman (see Number of Students Returned in Table 9-1).

The graduation rate represents the proportion of a given Freshman/Transfer/Masters cohort that graduated from DePaul by the end of a specific academic year.
Example: Of the 2,570 new Freshman in the 2018 cohort, 54.9% graduated by the end of their fourth academic year (see Percent Graduated in Table 9-2) and 67.7% graduated by the end of their sixth academic year (see Percent Graduated in Table 9-4).

Key for reading tables in this section: