Student Achievement

Retention and Graduation Rates – New

Retention and Graduation Rates

Fall to Fall Retention Rates

Retention rates reflect the percentage of students enrolled in a degree or certificate program on census date of fall term that either graduate from or are enrolled in a degree or certificate program the following fall term.

FA 2015 to FA 2016	93%
FA 2016 to FA 2017	92%
FA 2017 to FA 2018	91%
FA 2018 to FA 2019	94%
FA 2019 to FA 2020	96%
FA 2020 to FA 2021	92%

100% and 150% Graduation Rates by Program

SCU maintains a commitment to confidentiality of data. Due to the number of smaller programs at SCU, student success reports for individual programs disaggregate data by all IPEDS categories for race and ethnicity. Reports to the public disaggregate data into two demographic groups: students who identify as members of one of several underrepresented minority groups (URM) and students who do not. If we disaggregated data by every ethnicity, we would have to suppress many cells because they would not have sufficient membership to guarantee anonymity to any individual member.

According to the National Institutes of Health, the following racial and ethnic groups have been shown by the National Science Foundation to be underrepresented in health-related sciences on a national basis: Blacks or African Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. Thus, students who identify as members of one or more of these groups are included in the URM counts. Last Updated: December 2021

Ayurvedic Practitioner Certificate

Cohort Entering	Ethnicities	Cohort Size	100% Graduation Rate (3 Trimesters)	150% Graduation Rate (5 Trimesters)
Summer 2015	All	13	92.3	92.3
	Majority	8	87.5	87.5
	URM	5	100	100.0
Summer 2016	All	12	91.7	91.7
	Majority	7	100	100.0
	URM	5	80	80.0
Summer 2017	All	13	76.9	76.9
	Majority	10	80.0	80.0
	URM	3	66.7	66.7
Summer 2018	All	21	90.5	90.5
	Majority	10	80.0	80.0
	URM	11	100.0	100.0
Summer 2019	All	34	79.4	85.3
	Majority	20	80.0	85.0
	URM	14	78.6	85.7
Summer 2020	All	52	73.1	>=90.4*
	Majority	29	72.4	>=89.7*
	URM	23	73.9	>=73.9*

*additional students may continue to graduate until 150% date reached

Ayurvedic Wellness Educator Certificate

Cohort Entering	Ethnicities	Cohort Size	100% Graduation Rate (3 Trimesters)	150% Graduation Rate (5 Trimesters)
Summer 2015	All	22	63.6	63.6
	Majority	13	76.9	76.9
	URM	9	44.4	44.4
Summer 2016	All	20	65.0	65.0
	Majority	14	71.4	71.4
	URM	6	50.0	50.0
Summer 2017	All	39	59.0	59.0
	Majority	20	55.0	55.0
	URM	19	63.2	63.2
Summer 2018	All	54	87.0	87.0
	Majority	25	92.0	92.0
	URM	29	82.8	82.8
Summer 2019	All	72	88.9	88.9
	Majority	38	94.7	94.7
	URM	34	82.4	82.4
Summer 2020	All	65	55.4	61.5
	Majority	34	61.8	70.6
	URM	31	48.4	51.6

10-Term Doctor of Chiropractic

Cohort Entering	Ethnicities	Cohort Size	100% Graduation Rate (10 Trimesters)	150% Graduation Rate (15 Trimesters)
Fall 2015	All	92	58.7	71.7
	Majority	71	60.6	74.6
	URM	21	52.4	61.9
Spring 2016	All	33	51.5	78.8
	Majority	27	48.1	81.5
	URM	6	66.7	66.7
Summer 2016	All	0
	Majority	0
	URM	0
Fall 2016	All	87	67.8	80.5
	Majority	62	66.1	79.0
	URM	25	72.0	84.0
Spring 2017	All	38	60.5	>=76.3*
	Majority	26	65.4	>=73.1*
	URM	12	50.0	>=83.3*
Summer 2017	All	1		SUPPRESSED TO MAINTAIN CONFIDENTIALITY
	Majority	1
	URM	0
Fall 2017	All	60	66.7	>=83*
	Majority	50	64.0	>=84*
	URM	10	80.0	>=80*
Spring 2018	All	23	73.9	>=78.3*
	Majority	19	73.7	>=78.9*
	URM	4	75.0	>=75*

*additional students may continue to graduate until 150% date reached

10-Term Doctor of Chiropractic – CCE Definition**

Cohort Entering	Ethnicities	Cohort Size	100% Graduation Rate (10 Trimesters)	150% Graduation Rate (15 Trimesters)
Fall 2015	All	77	70.1	85.7
	Majority	62	69.4	85.5
	URM	15	73.3	86.7
Spring 2016	All	31	54.8	83.9
	Majority	25	52.0	88.0
	URM	6	66.7	66.7
Summer 2016	All	0
	Majority	0
	URM	0
Fall 2016	All	79	74.7	88.6
	Majority	56	73.2	87.5
	URM	23	78.3	91.3
Spring 2017	All	32	71.9	90.6
	Majority	21	81.0	>=90.5*
	URM	11	54.5	>=90.9*
Summer 2017	All	1		SUPPRESSED TO MAINTAIN CONFIDENTIALITY
	Majority	1
	URM	0
Fall 2017	All	57	70.2	>=87.7*
	Majority	48	66.7	>=87.5*
	URM	9	88.9	>=88.9*
Spring 2018	All	21	81.0	>=85.7*
	Majority	18	77.8	>= 83.3*
	URM	3	100.0	100.0

*additional students may continue to graduate until 150% date reached

**
1. Student withdrawal/leave of absence due to military deployment orders;
2. Program approved withdrawal/leave of absence due to a documented serious health condition, illness or injury;
3. Death of the student;
4. Student transfers to another accredited DCP;
5. Student does not persist to the second term

12-Term Doctor of Chiropractic

Cohort Entering	Ethnicities	Cohort Size	100% Graduation Rate (12 Trimesters)	150% Graduation Rate (18 Trimesters)
Fall 2017	All	23	73.9	*
	Majority	18	83.3	*
	URM	5	40	*

*additional students may continue to graduate until 150% date reached

Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine

Cohort Entering	Ethnicities	Cohort Size	100% Graduation Rate (10 Trimesters)	150% Graduation Rate (15 Trimesters)
Fall 2014	All	15	40.0	73.3
	Majority	13	38.5	76.9
	URM	2	50.0	50.0
Spring 2015	All	2	0.0	50.0
	Majority	2	0.0	50.0
	URM	0
Fall 2015	All	5	60.0	60.0
	Majority	3	66.7	66.7
	URM	2	50.0	50.0
Spring 2016	All	3	66.7	66.7
	Majority	3	66.7	66.7
	URM	0
Fall 2016	All	4	50.0	50.0
	Majority	4	50.0	50.0
	URM	0
Spring 2017	All	1		SUPPRESSED TO MAINTAIN CONFIDENTIALITY
	Majority	1
	URM	0
Fall 2018	All	2	100.0	100.0
	Majority	2	100.0	100.0
	URM	0

Master of Science in Medical Science

Cohort Entering	Ethnicities	Cohort Size	100% Graduation Rate (3 Trimesters)	150% Graduation Rate (5 Trimesters)
Fall 2020	All	16	81.25	>=87.5*
	Majority	5	100	100
	URM	11	72.7	>=81.8*

*additional students may continue to graduate until 150% date reached

Master of Science: Physician Assistant Program

Cohort Entering	Ethnicities	Cohort Size	100% Graduation Rate (7 Trimesters)	150% Graduation Rate (11 Trimesters)
Fall 2016	All	26	100.0	100.0
	Majority	24	100.0	100.0
	URM	2	100.0	100.0
Fall 2017	All	36	86.1	97.2
	Majority	28	85.7	96.4
	URM	8	100.0	100.0
Fall 2018	All	48	91.7	>=95.8*
	Majority	44	95.5	>=95.5*
	URM	4	50.0	100.0

*additional students may continue to graduate until 150% date reached

Licensure Exam Pass Rates by Program

Hear from the Students Who’ve Been in Your Shoes

I chose SCU when looking for a PA program because of their Integrative Medicine approach. I am from Michigan, and not many programs focus on this Integrative, Holistic approach when it comes to patient care in the Midwest, and I felt that was very important for me to learn as a future provider. My transition to semi-virtual learning has been very smooth and quite enjoyable. My favorite part about attending SCU is how tight-knit and diverse the community is. Coming from a large undergrad university and moving so far, it was very important for me to have a PA program that made me feel valued and invested in my success. At SCU, they do a great job of making you feel that.

Brianna Hadley

MSPA Class of 2022

One of the great things about SCU is we do have a campus layout, so all your classes aren't in a single room. We have our cadaver lab. We have different specialty rooms for physical assessment classes vs. acupuncture classes. All our acupuncture-specific classes have all the herbs in the room. You can pull out the herbs and look at them, whether in class or in between classes to get that extra studying in.

My favorite part of SCU is the collaboration from our beginning terms. We were working alongside chiropractor students, PA students, and ayurvedic students. It's a unique community where we get to learn about these different fields and sit in classrooms with them and work with them in the clinic. It allows you to get an understanding of all the different fields and how they can work together, and what is unique about your field. I think that is a wonderful aspect that I didn't think was going to be as prominent as it is here; even now, in my upper term classes and I am not in class with chiropractic students, I can still reach out to them about a certain aspect I may not understand or if I am working on a case. I want another perspective I know I have them to reach out to, so that has been a great networking community to have resources for.

Dr. Jamie Kuljis

Graduate, Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine

"There are a lot of things that I love about the program at SCU. The first one is that the faculty come from a long line of Ayurvedic knowledge deeply rooted in ancient classical text. They studied Ayurveda, but they also lived it. When you learn from people who embody this wisdom, it's much easier to grasp this knowledge. The second thing I love is the camaraderie within the cohort. The combination of the training, supportive faculty, and the support of my peers and classmates has given me the confidence I need to start my own practice."

Portia Harris

Student, Ayurveda Program

Some of my favorite courses at SCU have to be the chiropractic procedure classes; those are the classes you get to hone in on your chiro skills, your palpation skills and ultimately work on the adjustments that make you a chiropractor. Those are the classes I feel enhance my knowledge the most and are some of the reasons I chose to become a chiropractor here are SCU.

On top of chiropractic procedures classes, my favorite is the cadaver lab experience. The cadaver classes opened up my perception of what the human body is made up of. It allowed me to get an in-person perspective of how the body works and looks on the inside. I am genuinely thankful for those experiences because they opened and broadened my horizons to the human body and anatomy in general.

Jordan Vega

Student, Doctor of Chiropractic

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