The University reported its highest graduation rate ever, 61.9 percent, in a broadcast email to students last week.
But students shouldn’t expect to see 62 percent of their peers walking across the stage four years after entering LSU. The number actually represents the University’s six-year graduation rate for the 2011-2012 school year. The University’s four-year graduation rate was approximately 38 percent last year.
Brian Apple, fifth-year electrical engineering senior, said graduating in four years is hard for many students, especially if they come in without any credits.
“It is more difficult for students to load down semesters with 18 hours over and over without feeling over-stressed,” Apple said. ” It’s easier to space out the time and take fewer hours per semester.”
Although one may think a 61.9 percent graduation rate is low, it is significantly higher than the average six-year graduation rate for the state of Louisiana, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Louisiana’s average six-year rate is 38.8 percent.
The Chronicle of Higher Education places the University 134 out of 622 peer institutions. For comparison, the University of Alabama reported a 67.3 percent graduation rate in 2010, and the University of Arkansas reported a 57.9 percent graduation rate in 2010.
But Vice Chancellor for Student Life and Enrollment Services Kurt Keppler is not satisfied.
“It is nice that we were able to reach the highest number we have had,” Keppler said. “At the same time, we would like to see our graduation rate move into the 70s. It is nice to be better than the average, but the University doesn’t strive to be simply a better-than-average school.”
Keppler said although the future is uncertain, he believes the University will continue to see an upward trend.
LSU’s six-year graduation rates are quickly rising. In 2008, the University graduated 58.9 percent of students who entered in 2002. The graduation rate stayed virtually unchanged until this year, when it increased by 2 percent.
The four-year graduation rate is also quickly increasing. Last year alone the rate rose 3.9 percent.
 
____ Contact Joshua Bergeron at [email protected]