Student Achievement | Loyola University New Orleans

Loyola University New Orleans welcomes students of diverse backgrounds and prepares them to lead meaningful lives with and for others, to pursue wisdom and virtue, and to work for a more just world. Loyola takes seriously the realization of its mission as it works towards student achievement and institutional effectiveness.

Consistent with this effort, the university is committed to assessment and accountability related to student success. Student achievement is systematically evaluated through a number of indicators including cohort retention and graduation rates, career and graduate school placement outcomes, as well as student performance on ETS Major Field examinations and/or state licensing examinations.

In accordance with the standards of SACSCOC that institutions disclose their goals for student achievement and evaluate the success of students in achieving those goals, the Office of Institutional Research & Effectiveness maintains this page in which certain key performance indicators are presented and evaluated.

The university also publishes student achievement data in the university Fact Book, and in various other places including the Career Development Center's Student Outcomes report.

Student Achievement Outcomes

Unless otherwise noted, student achievement data presented below represents students enrolled in traditional undergraduate programs.

Persistence + Graduation Rates

Loyola has consistently first-year retention rates averaging 78% for the past 5 cohorts of entering first-year students, with four-year and six-year graduation rates averaging 52% and 64% respectively in each of the past 5 academic years for which official data is available, as shown below.

Bar graph showing one-year persistence for Fall cohorts 2020 through 2024. Rates are 81%, 76%, 77%, 80%, and 76% respectively

Bar graph showing four and six year undergraduate graduation rates for fall cohorts from 2017 through 2021, with values 59%, 48%, 50%, 55%, and 47% for four-year and 68%, 59%, and 61% for six-year. Loyola tracks the persistence and completion rate of students in its graduate and professional programs as a single combined group. The persistence and completion rates for these students are shown below.

These tables exclude JD law students and students enrolled in LIM extension-site degree programs. "On-time" graduation is defined as completion within the expected number of years-to-completion for graduates in a student's specific degree program (expected time-to-completion varies from 1 to 4 years).

Graduate First Year fall-to-fall persistence rates for 2017-2021 Fall Cohorts Graduate on-time and +2 years completion rates for 2014-2021 Fall Cohorts

CAREER + GRADUATE SCHOOL OUTCOMES

The Career Development Center tracks the success of Loyola students at obtaining employment or graduate school admission through surveys administered 3, 6, and 12 months post-graduation.

Loyola uses the NACE career outcomes rate to track post-graduation success, as shown below. This measure includes the percentage of students in full-time and part-time employment, volunteerism or military service, or enrolled in graduate school.

Undergraduate career outcomes at six months after graduation

PERFORMANCE ON STANDARDIZED TESTS

Loyola's College of Law tracks law student achievement using the Louisiana Bar Exam passage rates for first-time test-takers. In each of the most recent 5 July exam cohorts, Loyola's passage rate has equaled or exceeded the state average, as shown below.

Loyola and Louisiana first-time-taker Bar Exam passage by test date

Student Achievement Targets

To identify target levels of performance on these student achievement measures, Loyola routinely benchmarks its performance against other universities, including the following groups:

The population of all 4-year, Title IV-eligible, private not-for-profit universities
The member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities
A peer reference group identified by the Standing Council for Academic Planning
Other groups of SACS-accredited schools with similar institutional characteristics

Loyola uses this benchmarking process in routine annual reviews and assessment of student learning activities as well as in larger strategic conversations including our ongoing Project Magis initiative.

We have identified the following target performance levels for undergraduate achievement outcomes:

First-year fall-to-fall retention rate of 85% in the long-term
Improvement of 4-year and 6-year graduation rates to 55% and 65%
Undergraduate career outcomes rate of 90%, equal to national private school mean

In addition to undergraduate achievement targets, we identify the following targets for graduate student achievement:

Exceed historical rates of completion of rates of students completing graduate programs on-time (defined specifically by each program) or on-time-plus-2-years
For Juris Doctorate students, have bar exam passage rates in the top three of Louisiana law schools
For students in Nursing programs, have pass rates of 80% or more on certification exams (the minimum required for accreditation by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing