Merging Colleges To Cut Costs And Still Boost Graduation Rates - Sophie Quinton, Huffington Post

Students who apply to Georgia State University no longer receive a rejection letter if they don’t get in. Instead, they’re invited to enroll in Georgia State’s Perimeter College — the former community college that was absorbed by the Atlanta university last year. Now that the two schools are one, students who attend classes on one of the five Perimeter College campuses can easily transition to complete a four-year degree at the university. Georgia State expanded its system for advising and tracking students to Perimeter College and used money saved through the merger to hire more people to counsel them. In just a year since the schools consolidated, the graduation rate for first-time, full-time students in two-year programs at the college doubled, from 6 to 12 percent. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/merging-colleges-to-cut-costs-and-still-boost-graduation_us_58dbebeee4b0487a198a566d