Garrett County Government - Department of Business Development

Garrett College Tops State in Key Success Metrics

Last Updated on May 14, 2021 at 9:21am | Education

Article courtesy of NCWV Media - The Republican. From Staff Reports.
 
 
Garrett College leads all Maryland community colleges in multiple key success indicators, based on a compilation of data from the most recent Maryland Performance Accountability Report.
 
GC leads the state in three different graduation/transfer rates, including a 77.8% four-year graduation/transfer rates for all students. Garrett also led the state’s 16 community colleges in four-year graduation/transfer rates among African-American students (73.2%) and among developmental education completers (80%).
 
Garrett College also had the state’s second-highest graduation/transfer rate among college-ready students (89.1%), just behind Allegany College of Maryland’s 89.6%.
 
The four-year graduation/transfer rate is defined as percent of students either graduating from the community college or transferring to another institution of higher education within four years.
 
“These ratings are a testament to our students, as well as the faculty and staff that support them,” said Dr. Richard Midcap, Garrett College’s president. “We take great pride in the success of our students, whether they are graduating from Garrett or transferring on to four-year colleges and universities to complete their baccalaureate degrees.”
 
Garrett College also topped the state in two other success indicators: four-year successful-persister rate for all students (81.2%) and four-year successful-persister rate among students who completed developmental education classes (91.3%). A successful persister is defined as a student who graduates or remains in college after four years.
 
Garrett College had the state’s fourth-highest percent of first-generation college students — defined as neither parent having attended college — at 44.7%. GC ranked second in percent of students receiving some type of financial aid at 86.5 %, clearly boosted by the Garrett County Scholarship Program that pays tuition and fees for all Northern Garrett and Southern Garrett graduates.
 
“We are so fortunate to live in a county where our local government makes such an impressive commitment to providing higher education access to its residents,” Midcap said.
 
All four-year trend data covered the period ending in spring 2018 as collection of state-wide data includes significant lag time. The Performance Accountability Report is a required submission by colleges to the Maryland Higher Education Commission.