A Strategic Approach
Georgia State uses predictive analytics and a system of more than 800 alerts to track all undergraduates daily, identify at-risk behaviors and have advisers respond to alerts by intervening in a timely manner to get students back on track.
How It Works
The GPS system went live in August 2012. This past academic year, the system generated more than 55,000 individual meetings between advisers and students to discuss specific alerts, all aimed at getting students back on path to graduation. Since Georgia State initiated GPS Advising in 2012, freshman fall-to-spring retention rates have increased by five percentage points and graduating seniors are taking fewer excess courses in completing their degrees.
In 2016, Georgia State University consolidated with Georgia Perimeter College, a two-year institution with multiple campuses around the metro Atlanta area. With grant funding, Georgia State has deployed the GPS system and adapted its advising strategy to increase graduation rates for the 20,000 students seeking associate degrees with 42,000 meetings between advisers and associate-degree students in 2017-2018.
In addition to providing much-needed support to students seeking associate degrees, the extension of the GPS system is providing the university with the opportunity to better understand and support transfer pathways between two- and four-year institutions.
Sources:
EAB Global
GSU Office of Institutional Research
Improving Graduation Rates
Helping Students Finish Their Degrees, And More Quickly
- 4-Year Graduation Rates
- 6-Year Graduation Rates
Eliminating the Achievement Gap
Graduation Rates By Race & Ethnicity
- 2003
- Today
- Today, with Clearinghouse data added