Overall, female students tend to do better in retention. Male students have 37.3% dropout rate compared with 30.1% of that from the female students. This is quite consistent with the research literature. However, we found the female students usually take longer to graduate and have a lower graduation rate as compared with their male counterpart in our graduation rate study. Many females are known to have more additional family duty and financial challenges as compared wth males. These are the possible reasons for this analysis.

Overall, white students tend to do better than non-white students in rentention. White students have 32.1% dropout rate compared with 34.3% of that from the non-white students.This is also consistent with the research literature. Many non-whites are URM(UnderRepresented and Marginalized). URM students are known to have more disadvanged resources and would need more academic and student services support.

Overall, younger students tend to do better than older students in rentention. Younger students have 28.8% dropout rate compared with 36.1% of that from older students.Older students may be loaded with more family and financial issues. Also, they may be slower to using the technology like online-learning and lab simulators that are becoming the norm of education technology in the 212st century. Older students who were struggling should be identified in the early stages of their program and offer them extra help and resources. More user-friendly LMS would also allow older students to navigate for learning and feedback and is highly recommended.

We grouped all students with active military duty, veteran status, or miltary spouses in one category and compare that with the rest of the students. Overall, those who are reported to be active-duty military personnel, veterans, or a spouse of military personnel tend to attrite at a higher rate . Students who are military related have 37.8% dropout rate compared with 31.4% of that from the rest of the students.Military personnel tend to have sudden and unscheduled deployments, other duties, and challenges with communication and internet availability due to restricted and secure access protocols. This will likly to have impact on their learning. In recognition of students who have served and/or are currently serving in the Armed Forces, a dedicated Military Program support department should be created to support the military-related students on their special learning needs.

Overall, those who were admitted with transferred units tend to drop out at a higher rate . Students who have approved transferred units have 37.6% dropout rate compared with 31.5% of that from those admitted without transferred units.

One reason for this difference in retention rate may be due the fact that students with transferred units have lower learning expecation as they expect to finish quickly with transferred units. Also, education culture and grading requirements may be different for those who were admitted with transferred units from other institutues. It is recommended that adviors set expectation during orientation sessions for those transferred students to increase the institutional retention rate.

In a separate study, we found those students admitted with transferred units tend to graudate sooner and also have a relatively higher graudation rate. This shows that with the right learning expectation, students can indeed graduate sooner with transferred units.