Student Achievement

Davidson College identifies, evaluates, and publishes goals and outcomes for student achievement appropriate to its mission as a residential liberal arts college offering baccalaureate programs to full-time and traditional-aged students. 

The College has identified multiple measures to document student success including graduation rate, medical school acceptance rate, post-baccalaureate education, and employment in career-related fields. The reasons for including these measures, the goals that define achievement, and the data showing evidence of achievement are explained below. The goals represent the threshold of acceptability for each metric. The college has met or exceeded student achievement goals in all cases, thus no interventions for improvement are discussed in this narrative. In the event that a goal is not met in the future, interventions would be developed and available to all students.

Graduation Rates

Graduation rates are a critical measure for Davidson College. They provide evidence of the thoughtful recruitment of each entering class, the appropriateness of both academic challenge and academic support, and the fit between all aspects of students’ lives—in the classroom, the residence hall, the athletic field, and student activity offices—while at Davidson. As such, even though Davidson College has an exceptional graduation rate that has remained steady in the face of changing demographics, academic offerings, and economic conditions, it is never taken for granted. It is monitored carefully, and information is collected and assessed annually on the small number of students who withdraw, transfer, or do not graduate with their incoming class.  Those numbers are too small for statistical trends, but each case contributes to a better understanding of the ways students experience the college.

Davidson closely monitors several graduation rate statistics: the four-year graduation rate for all students, the six-year graduation rate for all students, the six-year graduation rate for students of color compared, the six-year graduation rate for Pell Grant recipients, and the six-year graduation rate for athletes.

Six-year graduation rate for all students. 

The IPEDS six-year graduation rate is the college’s completion indicator reported to SACSCOC. To set the goal for the six-year graduation rate for all students, the College looks to its peer group of 20 highly selective private liberal arts colleges. Recognizing that enrollments at colleges of this type are small enough that percentages are disproportionately affected by individual withdrawals, Davidson College’s goal is to remain within two percentage points of the five-year average for our peer group’s six-year graduation rate which is 91% for the entering fall cohorts from Fall 2014 to Fall 2018. Davidson has met that goal for each of the past five reporting years, as shown in Table 8.1.1 below.

Four-year graduation rate for all students. 

Davidson focuses on the six-year graduation rate as the norm, as do most baccalaureate colleges. There are numerous and legitimate reasons a student may take an extra semester or two to complete a degree. Most Davidson students do, in fact, graduate at four years and virtually all who graduate will do so within five years. Still, the College is mindful of that four-year rate and has set a goal for it to remain within five percentage points of the six-year rate, which is based on past performance. That goal has been met for each of the past five reporting years as well, as shown in Table 8.1.1.

Table 8.1.1.

Graduation Rates for First-Year Students Entering Fall 2014-2018 Cohorts

*Source: IPEDS Graduation Rates - Bachelor's Degree-Seeking Cohort
**Source: NCAA Federal Graduation Rate

Six-year graduation rate for subpopulations

Davidson College recognizes that cultivating a broadly diverse community is crucial to our educational mission and foundational commitment to leadership and service. To achieve this ambition, the college monitors disaggregated graduation rates to ensure equity across several distinct subpopulations, including students of color, Pell Grant recipients, and student-athletes.

The College understands that certain groups, specifically students of color and low-income students, have historically faced exclusion and marginalization at higher education institutions. Students of color include students who identify as American Indian, Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian, or two or more races. The College has set a goal for these subpopulations’ six-year graduation rates to be within two percentage points of the overall student cohort, which has been achieved for each of the last five cohorts. This goal is based on past performance.

Similarly, the College understands the financial pressures faced by students with Pell Grants. The College has set a goal for Pell Grant recipients’ six-year graduation rate to meet or exceed the rate for all students in the cohort, which has been achieved for each of the last five cohorts. This goal is based on past performance.

Additionally, the College closely monitors the progress of student-athletes in light of our distinct position among our peers as a Division I institution with 21 intercollegiate sports. Given the dedicated resources to our students-athletes, we expect the six-year graduation rate of athletes to be within five percentage points of the overall six-year graduation rate. This goal is based on past performance and reflects an understanding that student athletes sometimes transfer after entering the NCAA Transfer Portal. Over the past four years for which data is available,the college has met or exceeded the aforementioned goal, as shown in Table 8.1.1.

Davidson has a long history of successful preparation for medical school, and this success is reflected in the high proportion of entering students who indicate an interest in medical fields (21% at Davidson compared to 18% at similar schools, according to the 2024 Cooperative Institutional Research Program Freshman Survey Report). Therefore, acceptance rates to medical school are included among measures of student achievement.

The goal for acceptance rates to medical school was set by looking at the national acceptance rates and the variance year to year for Davidson acceptance rates, recognizing that a number of factors external to Davidson may influence how competitive medical school admissions are for the particular schools in which Davidson students are most interested. The College tracks medical school acceptance rates in each application cycle, which includes current students and alumni who are applying to medical schools. The college monitors the proportion of applicants who are accepted into Doctor of Medicine (MD) or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) within five years of graduation, as nearly all graduates apply during that timeframe. 

The college compares its medical school acceptance rates to national data, as the acceptance rates are unavailable for the college’s group of peer institutions. For the classes of 2017 to 2022, the Davidson median acceptance rate within five years of graduation is 89%, compared to a national median of 40%. The national average during that same period was 39%. Davidson’s goal is for 89% of graduates applying to MD and DO programs to be accepted within five-years of graduation. The goal is based on the median five-year acceptance rate. As demonstrated in Table 8.1.2, Davidson’s medical school acceptance rate was at or above the goal for three of the past four years for which there is complete data (the classes of 2021 and 2022 are still applying within the five-year timeframe). In support of this goal, the college has recently expanded the Office of Premedicine and Allied Health Professions, adding a full-time Assistant Director to advise and support students applying to MD and DO programs.

Table 8.1.2.

Five-year Medical School (MD/DO) Acceptance Rates for Davidson College Graduating Classes compared to National Five-Year Rates, Classes of 2017 to 2022.

*Source: American Association of Medical College Application Service

Many academic departmental goals at Davidson include preparing students for graduate programs, especially those programs that offer terminal degrees. Further, the College’s student research initiatives enable students to pursue research interests with faculty and in collaboration with other students, providing valuable experience that serves as a solid foundation on which to begin their doctoral studies. As with medical school interest, Davidson has a high proportion of entering students who indicate an interest in obtaining a PhD (21% at Davidson compared to 15% at similar schools, according to the 2024 Cooperative Institutional Research Program Freshman Survey). Therefore, earned doctorates are included among the College’s measures of student achievement.

​​The National Science Foundation collects data each year on all individuals receiving research doctorates from U.S. institutions, including information about their baccalaureate institution. Based on a rolling ten-year total, there have been 2283 doctorate recipients who earned a bachelor’s degree from Davidson College. The number of earned doctorates has remained steady with modest growth over the three most recent periods, as shown below in Table 8.1.3. Davidson’s goal is to be in the top 35 ranking among all Liberal Arts Colleges, and the college has consistently raised that goal over time in response to high performance. At the time of Davidson’s reaffirmation of accreditation in 2017, the college’s goal was to achieve a top 75 ranking among all Liberal Arts Colleges. In 2022, the college modified the goal to be in the top 60 because the goal had been consistently exceeded over the previous five years. Based on the most recent figures, Davidson College ranks 31st and 5th among all Liberal Arts Colleges and Peer Group Institutions, respectively.

Table 8.1.3. 

Davidson College Graduates - Earned Research Doctorates (Source: National Science Foundation)

Davidson considers preparation for life beyond graduation to be a significant part of its mission, which most often means preparation for graduate study and careers. Therefore, the proportion of graduates who are employed, participating in internships or fellowships, or pursuing graduate study are included as measures of student achievement.

The College uses, through the Betty and B. Frank Matthews II ‘49 Center for Career Development (Matthews Center), a Senior Survey that includes extensive follow-up, resulting in information on more than 87% of graduates responding each year, which is much higher than the national rate of 55% for the class of 2024. This survey provides the College with useful and accurate data about the nature of students’ first experiences upon graduating.

Given the nature of a liberal arts college and Davidson’s mission to prepare students for a wide range of options after graduation, there are no separate goals for employment or further education. Both are viable options for recent graduates and the distribution may reasonably vary from year to year. Rather, the focus is on the aggregate percentage across them with a goal of 91% of respondents who are employed in career-related fields or continuing their education, including fellowships. This goal is based upon a ten-year average of 93.5% and the understanding that the rate fluctuates with the job market. Table 8.1.4 below, shows the most recent five years of survey results. Over these five years, 93.2% of graduates found employment or enrolled in continuing education within six months of graduation. The goal was exceeded for all of the most recent five years, with two years (2021 and 2022) well-above the goal due to a strong job market for graduates.

That so many graduates were engaged in relevant and rewarding enterprises reflects well on their Davidson preparation. That such a diversity of opportunities was available to them reflects well on the liberal arts. The class of 2024 can be found working in industries ranging from business to the arts, pursuing a wide range of graduate degrees, and living around the country and around the world. 

Table 8.1.4.

Post-Davidson Activity Within Six Months of Graduation, Classes of 2020-2024

The mission of a liberal arts college does not lend itself to some of the more straightforward metrics such as job placement or licensing in a one-to-one fashion; a student’s academic major does not necessarily equal a particular form of employment. Nevertheless, it is important that the College discharge its responsibility to its students consistent with that mission and develop metrics that assess success. The College has set targets that are ambitious but reachable, and the success rate is excellent. As part of the regular reviews of those targets, it is important to remain mindful of where they might be set higher.