Retention and graduation

The Table and Figure below show the one-year overall retention and graduation rates for the College of Business and Management programs.

The first table shows the sum of retention and graduation rates.

The retention plus graduation rates look very promising, with an average of more than 90%, including all undergraduate majors in the last six years. The numbers have been pretty consistent across all the undergraduate majors.

Sum (retention plus graduation)

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Accounting	88	86	85	88	91	83
Business Administration	93	91	87	90	92	87
Economics	91	81	68	69	73	93
Entrepreneurship and Innovation	90	91	75	83	84	83
Finance	94	83	86	83	92	87
Human Resource Management	97	89	87	83	92	87
Information Assurance	100	50	100	50	100	100
International Business	88	93	85	94	75	100
Management	91	95	91	92	91	88
Management Information Systems	92	83	93	82	90	81
Marketing	92	94	88	89	86	81
Organization Administration	100	100	100	75	100	100
Supply Chain and Operation Management	94	95	92	90	85	81

The retention plus graduation rates for our graduate programs are shown below with healthy trends for most of the programs.

Retention plus graduation rate—Graduate programs
Graduate Program	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
DBA	88	24	80	24	72	25
MBA	93	89	94	92	84	89
Business Analytics (GC)	100	100	63	80	50	100
Information Assurance Security (GC)	100	50	100	50	100	100
Management Information Systems (MS in MIS)	94	95	88	97	91	83
MIS Generalist (GC)	50	100			75	33
Project Management (GC)	72	88	83	71	77	75
System Analysis (GC)	67	100	100	100	67

Bar chart displaying data from the table above (Retention plus graduation rate—Graduate Programs)

The table on undergraduate level retention shows a positive trend aligning with typical retention rates for our student population.

Retention rate

Undergraduate majors	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Accounting	39	54	53	51	58	51
Business Administration	34	39	34	39	53	45
Economics	63	43	26	38	33	50
Entrepreneurship and Innovation	45	45	42	67	47	33
Finance	38	46	44	45	49	45
Human Resource Management	37	45	48	54	48	52
Information Assurance	40	33		50	50	33
International Business	25	53	46	44	42	53
Manangement	29	38	56	52	59	41
Management Information Systems	43	38	55	45	52	39
Marketing	33	37	42	31	54	45
Organizational Administration	25	33	67	50	80	80
Supply Chain and Operations Management	36	43	56	41	45	47

Of the thirteen undergraduate majors currently offered, nine have retention rates exceeding 40%, an impressive achievement given Metro State University's mission of serving a largely nontraditional student population. Many of our students are first-generation college students, immigrants, and individuals from underrepresented communities who often balance academic responsibilities with work and family commitments. In addition, the majority of our students attend part-time. Please note that retention data for the Information Assurance program are not available for 2022.

We offered various graduate training programs, including three major programs and six graduate certificates. The retention rates for all three programs, Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Science in Management Information Systems (MS in MIS), and the Doctoral Program in Business Administration (DBA), have been more than 50% for most of the years. Data is not available for some certificates in some years due to the small size of the cohorts.

Graduate level retention rates

Graduate Programs	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Business Administration (DBA)	79	10	80	12	67	15
Business Administration (MBA)	64	41	57	56	43	48
Business Analytics (GC)	60	57	13	20		100
Database Administration (GC)					50
IT Information Assurance Security (GC)	40			100
Management Information Systems (MSMIS)	40	50	44	60	29	52
MIS Generalist (GC)	25				50	33
Project Management (GC)	33	38		43	15
Systems Analysis (GC)	33			100	33

As shown in the table below, the graduation rates were consistent within programs. Eight out of 13 programs have graduation rates higher than 40%.

Graduation rate

Undergraduate majors	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Accounting	48	31	32	38	33	32
Business Administration	59	52	54	51	38	42
Economics	25	38	42	31	40	13
Entrepreneurship and Innovation	45	45	33	17	37	43
Finance	56	37	41	38	43	50
Human Resource Management	59	43	39	37	42	42
Information Assurance	60	17	100	50	50	67
International Business	63	40	38		33	47
Management	61	57	35	40	33	46
Management Information Systems	49	45	38	37	38	42
Marketing	59	57	46	58	33	36
Organizational Administration	75	67	33	25	20	20
Supply Chain and Operations Management	58	52	36	49	40	34

The table and figure below show the graduation rates for our graduate major programs and certificates. Except for our Doctor of Business Administration program, other programs have solid graduation rates. The DBA cohort runs once every two years.

Graduate graduation rate

Graduate programs	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Business Administration (MBA)	30	48	37	35	42	41
Business Analytics (GC)	40	43	50	60	50
Business Administration (DBA)	8	14		12	6	10
Database Administration (GC)	100	33	50	50	50	100
Global Supply Chain Management (GC)	50	67
IT Information Assurance Security (GC)	60	100
Management Information Systems (MSMIS)	54	45	44		62	31
MIS Generalist (GC)	25	100		37	25
Project Management (GC)	39	50	83	29	62	75
Systems Analysis (GC)		100	100		33

Chart visually representing the data from the table above

We tracked our students’ major-related internships through academic internship courses 350i and 650i. The number of academic internships has significantly improved compared with the last academic year.

Academic internships

Semester	Number of academic internships	Number of internship credits
Fall 2024	2	3
Spring 2025	10	25
Summer 2025	7	26
Fall 2025	10	24
Spring 2026	11	30
Summer 2026	8	17