As presented in the THECB report, a junior cohort methodology was used to make comparisons between native students (those who were first-time-in-college enrollees at a particular institution) and transfer students who achieved junior classification status in fall 2016. Students in these cohorts were then tracked through AY2020 to determine four-year graduation outcomes along with the time-to-degree and SCH metrics. Universities are grouped based on the THECB’s Peer Group Categories: 

• Research and Emerging Research Universities (combined): Texas A&M University, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas State University, Texas Tech University, The University of Texas at Arlington, The University of Texas at Dallas, The University of Texas at El Paso, The University of Texas at San Antonio, University of Houston, and University of North Texas.
• Doctoral Universities: Sam Houston State University, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Texas Southern University, Texas Woman’s University, The University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley. 
• Comprehensive Universities: Lamar University, Prairie View A&M University, Stephen F. Austin State University, Tarleton State University, Texas A&M International University, and West Texas A&M University.
• Master’s Universities: Angelo State University, Midwestern State University, Sul Ross State University, Texas A&M University-Central Texas, Texas A&M University-San Antonio, Texas A&M University-Texarkana, The University of Texas at Tyler, The University of Texas of the Permian Basin, University of Houston-Clear Lake, University of Houston-Downtown, University of Houston-Victoria, and University of North Texas at Dallas.
• NOTE: Not all of these institutions appear in the analyses below, due to several institutions lacking Native (first-time-in-college) students in the junior cohort.

Using a similar visualization pattern as in the previous blog post, each visualization below shows the metric broken out by public university, along with the statewide averages for the junior cohorts indicated by the vertical lines. Each visualization can be accessed by clicking on the tab label at the top of the visualizations, as each of the Peer Group Categories can be accessed using the drop-down menu on the right-hand side.

Graduation Rate

• For the Research and Emerging Research Doctoral universities, Texas A&M University had the highest graduation rate for Native junior students (94%), the highest graduation rate for Transfer junior students (89%), and the smallest gap between Native and Transfer students (5 percentage point difference).
• Sam Houston State University had the highest graduation rate for Natives (86%) and Transfers (73%) in the junior cohort for Other Doctoral institutions.
• Across Comprehensive Universities, Stephen F. Austin State University had the highest rate for Natives (87%) and Transfers (75%) in the junior cohort.
• In the Master’s Universities group, Midwestern State University had the highest Native graduation rate at 87%. Transfer students graduate at the highest rate from Sul Ross State University at 81%, which is the only public university in the THECB data that shows a “positive” difference where Transfer students graduated at a higher rate than Native students (+4 percentage points).

Time-to-Degree in Years

• UT Austin and UT Dallas had the lowest Time-to-Degree for Native students (4.9 years) at Research and Emerging Doctoral universities, while Transfer students at Texas A&M had the lowest Time-to-Degree at 6.0 years. 
• SHSU had the lowest Time-to-Degree for Native (5.3 years) and Transfer (7.3 years) students in the junior cohort for Other Doctoral institutions.
• For Comprehensive Universities, Prairie View A&M University and SFASU had the shortest Time-to-Degree for Native students at 5.3 years, and PVAMU and Texas A&M International University had the shortest Time-to-Degree for Transfer students at 6.9 years in the junior cohort.
• Native students who graduated from SRSU had the shortest Time-to-Degree of 5.2 years in the Masters category, while Transfer students at UT Tyler graduated in an average of 6.9 years.

Semester Credit Hours (SCH) Attempted by Graduates

• Native students in the junior cohort from UT Austin graduated with the lowest SCH attempted (121.0 hours), while Transfer students at the University of North Texas graduated with the lowest SCH attempted (134.0 hours) across the Research and Emerging Doctoral categories.
• At Other Doctoral institutions, SHSU graduated Native students with the lowest SCH at 131.8 hours, while transfer students who graduated from Texas A&M University-Commerce had the lowest SCH attempted with 135.9 hours.
• In the Comprehensive Universities category, West Texas A&M University had the lowest SCH Attempted for both Native (122.7 hours) and Transfer (124.2 hours) students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 4 years within the THECB’s junior cohort data.
• Two institutions (UH Clear Lake and UNT Dallas) in the Master’s Universities category had SCH attempted data in the THECB report below 120 SCH for Native students, which is the typical threshold for earning a bachelor’s degree. For institutions with more plausible data published by the THECB, UT Tyler had the lowest SCH attempted for Natives with 125.3 hours, while Transfer students at Texas A&M University-Texarkana had the lowest SCH attempted at 125.9 hours in the junior cohort.