Enrollment data summaries - Glossary

These enrollment data summaries provide aggregate information on GVSU enrollees by program (level, college, major. minor, or emphasis).

The reports present 5 years' data (where available), and are updated once per year in the fall (typically September). Most of the data presented here (unless otherwise specified) are from fall census counts.

These data are duplicative by program, meaning that a student who is in more than one program will be counted once in each applicable program. In practical terms, this means that no individual student is double-counted within a single report, but adding figures from more than one report could result in sums that are greater than the actual number of students enrolled. For example: an undergraduate student majoring in Management and Finance would be counted once in each of the following reports:

• Finance (Bachelor's Programs)
• Management (Bachelor's Programs)
• Seidman College of Business (Bachelor's Programs)
• GVSU (Bachelor's Programs)

Demographic and performance data are suppressed for populations with 4 or fewer individuals, in order to protect individual confidentiality.

• Total Enrollment:
  The total number of students in the program who enrolled in the fall term.



• Class: (Undergraduate programs only)
  The distribution of fall enrollment by classification (at the beginning of the term -- credits earned during the term in question are not counted toward the classification).
  • Freshman -- 0 to 24 hours earned
  • Sophomore -- 25 to 54 hours earned
  • Junior -- 55 to 84 hours earned
  • Senior -- 85 or more hours earned


• Program Admission Status: (Undergraduate programs only)
  The distribution of fall enrollment by secondary admission status. Note that most programs do not require secondary admission. For secondary admission programs, alternative versions of this report are available that tabulate data only for fully admitted (i.e. "Admitted" or "Direct Admit") students.
  • Admitted -- student has attained full admission to the program
  • Declared -- student has declared intent to pursue a secondary admission program, but has not yet atttained admission
  • Direct Admit
  • Pending Admit
  • [Status not recorded]


• Sex:
  The distribution of fall enrollment by sex.



• Ethnicity:
  The distribution of fall enrollment by ethnicity, using federal reporting categories.
  • African American or Black
  • American Indian or Alaskan Native
  • Asian
  • Hawaiian Native or Other Pacific Islander
  • Hispanic or Latino
  • White
  • Two or More Races
  • Non-Resident International
  • Not Reported
  • Total Students of Color -- Includes students who indicated any of the following, regardless of citizenship and/or multiracial background: African American or Black, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, Hawaiian Native or Other Pacific Islander, Hispanic or Latino.



• Age:
  The distribution of fall enrollment by age. Age is calculated as of September 1 of the given academic year.



• First Generation College Students:
  Students are counted as first generation if they answered "neither" to the question. "Have either of your parents graduated from a four-year college?"



• Low Income (Pell eligibility):
  Eligibility for federal Pell Grants is a common indicator of socio-economic status among college students. Eligibility is determined based on family income, family size, and the number of college students in the family. Criteria and amount are determined annually by the US Dept. of Education. For this report, students are counted as Pell-eligible if they ever qualified for a Pell Grant at GVSU, regardless of their current-year qualification.



• Initial Admission Type:
  Initial admission type describes the students' higher education experience prior to attending GVSU for the first time (at their current level).
  • First Time in Any College (FTIAC) -- Student had never attended any higher ed institution (unless it was concurrent with high school) before she/he enrolled at GVSU.
  • Transfer -- Student earned credit from a postsecondary institution prior to attending GVSU. Credit earned concurrently with high school enrollment or in the summer immediately between high school completion and fall GVSU enrollment the same year does not qualify a student as a transfer student.
  • Grand Valley Undergraduate -- Student is currently a graduate student, but previously attended GVSU as an undergraduate student.
  • Non-Grand Valley Undergraduate -- Student is currently a graduate student and did not attend GVSU as an undergraduate student.



• FTIAC Characteristics: (undergraduate programs only)
  See "Initial Admission Type" for definition of "FTIAC".
  Selected descriptive statistics for students who were FTIACs enrolled in the program in the fall term.
  • Percent Female
  • Percent Students of Color -- see "Ethnicity" above.
  • Average High School GPA
  • Average ACT Composite
  • Average SAT Total
  • First Semester GPA -- New students' GPA in their initial fall term. Value is not retroactively adjusted for repeated courses.
  • First Year GPA -- New students' GPA in their initial fall & winter term. Value is not retroactively adjusted for repeated courses.
  • Retention at GVSU -- the percentage who were still enrolled at GVSU in the following fall
  • Retention in Program -- the percentage who were still enrolled in the reported academic program in the following fall (also see "Standardized Retention Score")



• New Transfer Student Characteristics: (undergraduate programs only)
  Selected descriptive statistics for students who entered as transfer students in the fall term.
  • Percent Female
  • Percent Students of Color -- see "Ethnicity" above.
  • Average Entering GPA
  • First Semester GPA -- New students' GPA in their initial fall term. Value is not retroactively adjusted for repeated courses.
  • First Year GPA -- New students' GPA in their initial fall & winter term. Value is not retroactively adjusted for repeated courses.
  • Retention at GVSU -- the percentage who were still enrolled at GVSU in the following fall
  • Retention in Program -- the percentage who were still enrolled in the reported academic program in the following fall (also see "Standardized Retention Score")



• Hours Attempted:
  The distribution of fall enrollment by the number of fall credit hours attempted.



• Enrollment Status:
  The distribution of fall enrollment by full-time or part-time status. An undergraduate student is considered to be enrolled full-time if she/he is taking 12 or more credit hours. A graduate student must enroll for at least 9 credit hours to be classified as full-time.



• GPA Entering Fall:
  The distribution of cumulative GPAs of students enrolled in the major in the fall term. GPAs are calculated as of the census date, so grades earned in the given fall term don't contribute to the values. GPAs include all GVSU coursework at the given level (undergraduate / graduate), whether inside or outside the major.
  GPA values are suppressed for N's below 5.



• Fall term GPA:
  The average GPA earned by students enrolled in the program. The number of students with valid GPAs is presented, along with the GPA. These data are based on data captured after the end of the term, so the numbers may not be the same as those presented elsewhere in this summary, since students may drop classes or change majors during the semester. GPAs include all GVSU coursework at the given level (undergraduate / masters / doctoral) during the given term, whether inside or outside the major. Note that each student is weighted equally in the calculation of averages (e.g. if one student has a GPA of 0.00 over 3 credit hours and another has a GPA of 4.00 over 18 credit hours, they'd average to 2.00). Values are not retroactively adjusted for repeated courses.
  



• Standardized Retention Score:
  This is a measure of the percentage of students who remain at GVSU or have graduated one year later, controlling for class, level, and enrollment history. It's expressed as the ratio of students who were actually retained to the number who were expected to be retained, based on behavior of comparable students university-wide. As such, values near 1.00 represent typical retention performance; higher values indicate strong retention, and lower values indicate poor retention.
  "Retention at GVSU" measures whether students persisted at the university, regardless of whether they changed to a different academic program. "Retention within program" measures whether students stayed in the program(s) reported in that particular report. E.g.:
  • In the university-wide reports, the two measures are identical;
  • If a student stayed at GVSU but changed majors from History to English, she would be counted at "retained" in the reports for the university and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, but as "not retained" in History (and in her particular emphasis within History, if applicable);
  • If a Biology major changed from the Preveterinary emphasis to General Biology, she'd count as "retained" within the university, college, and major, but "not retained" within Biology - Preveterinary Medicine.



• Test Scores:
  Average scores on major placement tests for students enrolled in the program in the fall term. For undergraduate students, ACT and SAT scores are shown. Note that transfer students are not required to submit ACT scores for admission. For graduate students, GRE and GMAT scores are shown. These scores are not required for all applicants. The SAT and GRE tests were both re-scaled (in 2016 and 2011 respectively), so scores are shown separately for the old and new formats. The State of Michigan changed its grade 11 assessment test from the ACT to the (new) SAT in 2016.
  Note that test score averages may appear with displayed N's below 5. As noted above, data are suppressed in populations with N below 5, but it is different to know (for example) that there's one person with a test score of 620 among 15 people in a program than it is to know that the average score in a population of 1 is 620. In the former case, the identity of the indiviual cannot be discerned without knowing with certainty who was the only person in the program to submit a score. In the latter case, the individual's score is compromised for anyone who knows the identity of the one person in the program.



• Degrees Granted:
  The number of degrees granted in the program for the academic year. The academic year begins in July, so the August commencement is counted with those from the following fall and winter. Note that degrees are occasionally granted late and back-dated, so totals from past years may change slightly with each annual update of these tables.
  • Total
  • by sex of degree recipient
  • by ethnicity of degree recipient -- See "Ethnicity" above