JMU retention rates among nation’s highest

James Madison University recorded its highest retention rate since 2013 for the 2023 cohort of first-year, full-time, undergraduate students.  

The university retained 91.9% of its undergraduate students, which is among the highest in the nation for large, public research institutions. This is a 1.7% increase over the 2022 rate and amounts to 83 additional students staying at JMU, a significant milestone for students, their families and JMU.  

Retention rates are a standard metric for evaluating student success and refer to the percentage of an incoming first-year student cohort that remain at the institution into their second year.  

The 2023 retention rate represents another significant accomplishment for JMU: continued progress toward closing many of the identified retention gaps among different student populations. First-generation college students had an 89.7% retention rate in 2023, a 5% increase since 2019. While this is still below the overall 91.9% retention rate, the success gap between first-generation and all JMU students has been cut in half from 4.4% in 2019 to 2.2% in 2023.   

“JMU invested in a broader initiative to support first-generation college students, and it’s been wonderful to see how these efforts galvanized our team and created even more momentum when designing programs and services,” said Dr. Rudy Molina, vice provost for student academic success.  

“The increased retention rate and closing success gaps reflects good progress since committing to increase retention rates with the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) in 2020,” said Bob Kolvoord, JMU’s interim provost. “Importantly, we must not take this increase for granted and continue to work toward improving student success and retention for all students at JMU.”  

The QEP is a university-wide effort aimed at narrowing retention gaps between the overall student population and specific groups of students traditionally underrepresented in higher education.  

“This is not only the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do because demographic trends point to a rise in traditionally underrepresented populations in Virginia and beyond,” said Molina.  

Molina also said JMU has seen an increase in the number and diversity of student applications due to the university joining the Common Application program and JMU’s growing national reputation as a Carnegie Classification R2 research institution and member of the Sun Belt Conference.