drop out rate in first year (1 Viewer)

[studygirl118]

Hi all, just curious, for those who are in your senior years of uni, what was the drop out rate like for your course during first year?

 

[sida1049]

Back in first year I was combine advanced maths and arts (economics). Number of people taking introductory advanced maths courses was around 200 if I remember correctly. Number of people taking senior advanced maths is usually roughly 40 for my cohort (I estimate non-advanced senior units to have enrolments of around 70-80.)

Back in first year, the number of people taking introductory economics units was roughly 500, maybe even 600. Last year when I took third year advanced microeconomics, there was roughly 60-70 students. (I estimate non-advanced senior units to have enrolments of around 70-100.) I dropped my arts degree and don't do economics anymore, so count me as a dropout.

 

[sida1049]

The large difference in attendance is probably not due dropouts though. E.g. plenty of people who need to take 1st year math aren't math majors, but are likely to be from engineering or other science majors. It's pretty difficult to infer the dropout rate of a degree, unless you have some degree-specific courses in your first year that nobody from other faculties would take. E.g. for me, we had a first year aerospace engineering course, which only aerospace engineering students would take, so we could see everyone who was in that degree, and then compare to the attendance of the core 2nd,3rd,4th year aerospace courses. But even then, you have people doing combined degrees, or people who do part-time uni, so there will be a difference in attendance simply due to a difference in their plan of study. All in all, I think it's pretty hard to guess the dropout rate unless you ask your course coordinator or something lol.

You're right, and I should have added a disclaimer that the numbers are more relevant to dropping out of a stream (or needing to take something but choosing not to continue further), rather than a explicitly dropping out of a major.

A much more relevant comparison might be between number of students in second year courses against number of students in third year courses. For anyone interested, the number of students for my cohort in second year advanced maths units was around 80-90, and the number of students in my second year advanced economics class was around 80-90 as well.

 

[GrilledCheese]

My first year of engineering we lost at least a third or the cohort. When I did post grad med no one failed first year.

 

[ChrisMueller]

It really does depend on your degree. A lot of people shift and change throughout their time at Uni. I started in education and have now switched to Science. I tend to find that the more 'math'-y degrees have higher dropout rates, as students find it hard to cope with workloads, etc. In first year Advanced Maths and in other Advanced units, a lot of people left before the end of the first two weeks.