Graduation Rates

The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, or ACEJMC, requires its accredited programs to publish retention and graduation data on their websites and to update the information annually.

The following information has been compiled by the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications’ Office of Undergraduate Affairs and Enrollment Management.

Undergraduate Retention Rate 2020-2021

One-year retention of students who became a College of Journalism and Communications major in 2020 (n=277): 1-year: 88.4%

Undergraduate Graduation Rate for 2015 cohort

Graduation rates for a major (as opposed to a university) are assessed in two ways.  One method is to calculate the graduation rate as the percentage of students entering a college in their first year at the institution.  The second is to assess the graduation rates of students who have declared a major in the college by their third year (when most students have finally settled on a major course of study).

For a college, a graduation rate is not a measure of whether a student receives a degree.  It is a measure of whether a student receives a degree in that particular college.  Many of the students at UF who enter our College as freshmen and don’t receive a College of Journalism and Communications degree do in fact graduate.  Because they have changed majors, their degrees are awarded by other UF colleges.

With these things in mind, the College of Journalism and Communications graduation rates are as follows: Graduation rates for students from the College of Journalism and Communications or any college that remained or declared a major in the CJC in their third year (n = 451):

4-year:  82.5%, 6-year 95.1%

In-Residence Master’s Graduation and Retention Rates

Based on in-residence master’s enrollment of 16 in our fall 2020 master’s cohort, the one-year retention rate was 82% (13/16, with 1 graduated in summer 2021 and 12 registered in fall 2021).

The two-year graduation rate for students who began in fall 2020 is 62% (10/16, with 1 graduated in summer 2021, 2 graduated fall 2021, 4 graduated spring 2022, and 3 expected to graduate in summer 2022 as of July 2022).

Online Master’s Graduation and Retention Rates

*Many students in the online program are part-time and have a seven-year window to complete the program, and 37/53 (70%) in the Spring 2020 cohort will have graduated as of Summer 2022.