Promise Scholars Stay the Course at LCC

Michigan’s capital city is a proud, hard-working community that doesn’t give up.  As it turns out, neither do its Promise Scholars.  Scholars from the 2016 and 2017 high school graduating classes enrolled at Lansing Community College beat national averages for persistence and retention at community colleges by significant margins.

Scholars from Lansing’s class of 2016 achieved an 86 percent persistence rate from fall to spring during their first year of study at LCC, and 77 percent returned to school for a second year.  Both figures are around fifteen points higher than the nationwide average:  According to National Student Clearinghouse, national rates for persistence and retention at two-year degree-granting institutions stand at 72 and 61 percent, respectively.

And it gets even better:  2017 Promise Scholars at LCC put up a whopping 92 percent persistence rate in their first year—20 percentage points higher than the national average.

Promise Scholars at four-year institutions—Michigan State University and OIivet College—also stayed in school.  The 2016 cohort achieved a persistence rate of 90 percent, and a retention rate of 86 percent in their first year.  92 percent of 2017 Scholars at MSU and Olivet returned to class for a second semester this spring.

Lansing Promise Scholars’ stellar persistence and retention figures are a sign of even more success to come for the Lansing Promise Community.  By staying in school, more and more of LCC’s Promise Scholars are on track to earn degrees and/or successfully transfer to four-year institutions.