Bright college days

This weekend is my college 30th-reunion weekend, so my alma m has been dunning me with emails.

They sent me one bursting with pride about the Class of 'Ought Seven, 1131 strong. A minute's digging leads to the factoid that there were 1371 admitted: a completion rate of 82.5% . (Actually, commencement must have included some laggards from previous class years.)

Turns out 1) that college completion rates are actually lower than I thought; and 2)yes, elite private schools take the kids who are much more likely to graduate.

Overall, only 36.4% of students graduate on time: one in three. (Which rather cheers me up about taking so long to finish.) "1300 SATS and "A" average" kids have 68.9% completion rates; not surprisingly, kids who aren't such obvious college material are drastically less likely to finish.

I went to a college whether they actually did that thing that they do at the service academies - - at frosh orientation, we were told: "Shake hands with the guy on your left; shake hands with the guy on your right; one of the three of you won't make it to graduation".

Turns out that that's true overall. Hadn't really thought about it when I was 17.

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