White House Education Scorecard Hits Missouri Baptist University On Graduation Rates

President Barack Obama used part of his State of The Union address Tuesday to promote the release of an education scorecard, a tool he said "parents and students can use to compare schools based on a simple criteria: where you can get the most bang for your educational buck."

The College Scorecard was released Wednesday. It does not rank schools in ways done by The Princeton Review or U.S. News & World Report.

It does provide information about cost, the gradaution rate, loan default, and median borrowing. In the future it will also include average earnings for graduates who attended school using federal loan dollars.

What does it say about Missouri Baptist University in Creve Coeur?

COST

Net cost is $21,254 per year (after grants & scholarships). According to the site, the school's average net price decreased 5 percent between 2007-2009. It described the school's cost as on the border of "medium" and "high".

GRADUATION RATE

According to the site, 27.8 percent of students graduate within six years, what was described as "low."

"Graduation rate data are based on undergraduate students who enrolled full-time and have never enrolled in college before. This may not represent all undergraduates that attend this institution."

LOAN DEFAULT

7.2 percent of borrowers defaulted on Federal student loans within three years of entering repayment, compared to the national average of 13.4 percent.

MEDIAN BORROWING

According to the site, Missouri Baptist students borrow approximately $181.25 monthly, deemed in the medium range.

Terry Dale Cruse, Vice President for enrollment services at Missouri Baptist said the low graduation rate is the result of a class of freshmen in 2005 that was admitted in what was "not a good year of recruitment." It was a time the school was in-between admission directors, and was not as strict when it came to admission requirements.

In that year, Cruse said 47 of 220 in the class were unable to return after that fall semester because of affordability and academic issues. By comparison, Cruse said the class in 2004 was at a 44 percent graduation rate and the class of 2006, which will be reported in the fall, stands at between 44 and 45 percent.

The school was in-between admissions directors, he said.

Cruse pointed to challenges the school faces in having populations of "first-generation" college students who are more at risk of not completing their education, and how Missouri Baptist University opened an Academic Success Center in 2008.

He also suggested that using retention as a measure--who starts at a school and finishes there--works against schools in Missouri which have working agreements with other schools as far as transferring credit. When a student transfers, that data interprets the student as a dropout, he said.

"You have to do some more research when you investigate the quality of the information," Dale said, adding that the most important thing prospective students can do to evaluate a school is to visit in person and ask questions.