Student Success Definitions and Information

In compliance with the WASC accreditation commission the following is provided to help students, parents and the general public to learn about the graduation and completion rates at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Cohort - The results generated on these pages are based on groups of students called a COHORT. A cohort is all Students who enrolled in a Summer or Fall Quarter in a certain year. Typically referred to as First Time Freshmen or FTF Cohort. Other cohorts include: New Transfers (NTR) and New Graduates (NGR).

FTF or First-Time Freshmen Cohort - Student who enrolled for the First Time in their college career with 12 units or more. These student will have enrolled in the Fall Quarter of a specific year. .

NTR or New Transfers Cohort - These are students who started college elsewhere and have subsequently transferred to CalPoly.

Persistence Year - Persistence is measured by the number of years following a student’s first admit year (i.e. a student who is admitted in Fall of 2010 has a 4 year Persistence if they are enrolled or graduated in the Fall of 2014).