Skip to main content

Faculty Affairs
Office of the Provost

Vanderbilt University Student Achievement

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) requires that institutions publish student achievement information. In SACSCOC’s Policy on Institutional Obligations for Public Disclosure, student achievement information may include “reliable information in retention, graduation, course completion, licensure examinations, and job placement rates and other measures of student success appropriate to institutional mission.” Vanderbilt University uses many metrics of student achievement to evaluate the success of its educational programs.

Undergraduate Student Achievement

Vanderbilt University tracks several metrics to evaluate each undergraduate cohort’s student achievement. Primary metrics are graduation rate and retention/persistence rate. A third metric evaluates undergraduate student outcomes, or placements, with respect to their activity following graduation.

Graduation Rate

Vanderbilt utilizes the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System’s (IPEDS) six-year graduation rate calculation to monitor student achievement. Using the IPEDS data feedback reports and comparative peer data, Vanderbilt expects each cohort to meet or exceed a 92% six-year graduation rate. Historical graduation rate data can be found in the university’s Student Factbook.

  • the most recent cohort (2016) achieved a six-year graduation rate of 92.8%

Retention Rate

Each year, Vanderbilt tracks the enrollment activity for each incoming first-year cohort of undergraduate students. Using the IPEDS data feedback reports and comparative peer data, Vanderbilt expects each cohort to meet or exceed a 95% fall retention rate. Annual retention data are published in the university’s Student Factbook.

  • the most recent cohort (2021) achieved a fall retention rate of 96.4%

Outcome/Placement Rate

Vanderbilt has a robust process for collecting information related to undergraduate students’ first destination. This information is then analyzed, per the guidelines set forth by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) First Destination policies and procedures, and published in partnership with the Vanderbilt Career Center. As defined by the percentage of students from each undergraduate graduating class (for whom the institution has a known outcome/placement) that is either employed or enrolled in graduate education, Vanderbilt expects to exceed a 90% success rate. Historical data may be reviewed on the Career Center’s dashboard.

  • for the most recent graduating class with finalized data (2021), Vanderbilt had a knowledge rate of 93.6% and the graduating class achieved a 92.6% success rate (employed or in graduate school)

Graduate Student Achievement

For the institution’s PhD programs governed by the Graduate School, Vanderbilt evaluates two metrics for student achievement: time to degree statistics and data regarding sources of funding.

Time to Degree

As a participating institution in the National Science Foundation’s annual Survey of Earned Doctorates, Vanderbilt monitors PhD candidates’ progress and completion of their degree from three starting points (since starting doctoral program; since starting graduate school; since earning baccalaureate degree). Vanderbilt expects to meet or exceed the median time to degree for both its peer institutions and all participating institutions in all three metrics. Table 31 on the NSF SED webpage provides more detailed information regarding national norms.

  • according to the 2020 NSF SED, Vanderbilt’s median time to degree was 5.8 years since candidates began their doctoral program; 7.0 years since candidates began graduate school; 8.0 years since candidates earned their baccalaureate degree

Sources of Funding

Vanderbilt, in particular leadership of the Graduate School, places a strong emphasis on fully funding doctoral candidates during their pursuit of a degree. Using the National Science Foundation’s annual Survey of Earned Doctorates, Vanderbilt benchmarks itself against national data and expects at least 33% of doctoral recipients will receive funding from fellowships and/or grants. Table 35 on the NSF SED webpage provides more detailed information regarding national norms.

  • according to the 2020 NSF SED, 43.4% of Vanderbilt’s PhD recipients were supported through fellowships and/or grants

Professional Student Achievement

Provided the broad array of degree programs and the variability between them with respect to achievement metrics (e.g., graduation rates, passage rates for licensure/certification exams, job placement data, etc.), Vanderbilt’s colleges and schools offering professional degree programs evaluate student achievement data for their respective programs at the local level. Summary data are found below, including links to the respective college/school webpage(s), where available.

Divinity School

Graduation Rate

Leadership in the Vanderbilt Divinity School utilize data from the Association of Theological Schools’ (ATS) annual Strategic Information Report (SIR), which provides national data for benchmarking, to evaluate the graduation rates for its masters programs. Vanderbilt expects to not only outperform the national graduation rates, but to exceed the following graduation rates for each of its master’s programs: Master of Divinity >75%; Master of Theological Studies >75%; Master of Theology >85%.

  • the class of 2021 for each of Vanderbilt Divinity School’s master’s programs not only outperformed the national average graduation rate for all ATS schools, but also exceeded its own expectations, as follows:
    • Master of Divinity: 83% graduation rate, as compared to the national (all ATS schools) graduation rate of 59%
    • Master of Theological Studies: 87% graduation rate, as compared to the national (all ATS schools) graduation rate of 54%
    • Master of Theology: 100% graduation rate, as compared to the national (all ATS schools) graduation rate of 46%

Placement Rate

Vanderbilt Divinity School’s administrators and faculty utilize the Association of Theological Schools’ (ATS) annual Strategic Information Report (SIR) to evaluate the placement, or outcomes, of graduates. The SIR calculates a positive placement rate, which enables Vanderbilt to benchmark against national norms. Vanderbilt excepts to meet or exceed the positive placement rate for each graduating class.

  • the 2021 SIR indicates a positive placement rate for Vanderbilt Divinity School graduates of 90%, which is aligned with the national norm (90%)
School of Engineering

Leadership in the School of Engineering monitor several factors of student achievement, as posted on the school’s Fact Sheet. The administration and faculty in VUSE also closely monitor the graduation rate data for the school’s professional master’s in engineering (ME) programs. Each cohort is expected to meet or exceed an 80% graduation rate.

  • The graduation rates for the three most recent ME cohorts exceeded VUSE’s expectations, as follows: 2020=92.9%; 2021=100%; 2022=100%.
 Law School

The Vanderbilt Law School, accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA), closely monitors three metrics to evaluate student achievement: bar passage rates; attrition rates; employment outcomes. As required by the ABA, annual reports documenting Vanderbilt’s performance on these metrics are available on the Consumer Information webpage.

Bar Passage Rate

The Vanderbilt Law School’s administration and faculty evaluate the ABA’s annual Standard 509 Information Reports (found on the VLS Consumer Information webpage) and benchmarks against the national average passage rate for all ABA approved law schools. It is expected that each graduating cohort from the law school will exceed the ABA’s minimum ultimate bar passage rate of 75%, with the goal of achieving a 100% ultimate passage rate. Furthermore, the law school expects to exceed the average passage rate for ABA approved law schools in the top five jurisdictions in which VLS graduates sit for the bar.

  • the VLS class of 2019 achieved an ultimate bar passage rate of 97.06%
  • the VLS class of 2019 also exceeded the passage rates for all ABA approved law schools in the top five jurisdictions in which Vanderbilt graduates sat for the bar
    • Jurisdiction VLS Passage Rate Passage Rate for ABA Approved Law Schools
      New York 97.62% 86.19%
      Tennessee 92.50% 71.12%
      District of Columbia 96.00% 80.57%
      Texas 100.00% 77.53%
      Georgia 100.00% 78.23%

Attrition Rate

The ABA’s Standard 509 Information Reports provide data regarding two types of attrition: academic and “other”. Vanderbilt expects to have no academic attrition and strives to have no “other” attrition.

  • the Standard 509 Information Reports from the previous four years on the Vanderbilt Law School’s Consumer Information webpage reveal no academic attrition and virtually no (less than 1%) “other” attrition

Employment Outcomes

In accordance with ABA requirements, Vanderbilt Law School makes employment outcomes reports publicly available on its Consumer Information webpage. Administrators and faculty utilize this information to evaluate the achievement of graduates, and expects to exceed a 90% employment rate while striving for a 100% employment rate.

  • the employment reports over the past four years document Vanderbilt’s achievement of greater than a 90% employment rate, with the most recent class (2021) achieving a 95.8% employment rate
Owen Graduate School of Management

The administration and faculty in the Owen Graduate School of Management (Owen) monitor two primary metrics for student achievement: passage rates on the CPA and Level 1 Chartered Financial Analyst exams, and employment outcomes. Furthermore, Owen’s By the Numbers webpage documents a wealth of statistics about students’ and graduates’ performance and achievements.

Passage Rate

Using the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) reports, Owen leadership benchmarks graduates’ performance on the CPA exam against national norms. For the CPA examination, Vanderbilt expects to exceed the midpoint passage rate for the top 25 graduate accountancy programs.

  • the most recent report from NASBA (2020) identifies the midpoint passage rate for the top 25 graduate accountancy programs as 71.1%, whereas Vanderbilt’s 2020 graduates achieved a passage rate of 92.9%
    • Vanderbilt’s passage rate for 2019 (90.1%) and 2021 (92%) also support strong performance on this metric

With respect to the Level 1 Chartered Financial Analyst exam, Vanderbilt utilizes the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute’s reports to evaluate graduates’ performance, and expects to exceed the national average by at least double (unless the national average is above 50%).

  • for 2021, Vanderbilt graduates achieved a 94% passage rate, as compared to the national average of 22-42% (range due to multiple administrations resulting from COVID protocols)

Employment Outcomes

Using the MBA Career Services & Employer Alliance Standards (CESA), Owen’s administrators and faculty monitor employment outcomes and set expectations to exceed CESA’s standards for employment rates for MBA programs. CESA’s standards state that programs should know the outcomes for at least 75% of graduates from specialty master’s programs and 85% for MBA programs. Vanderbilt expects to have knowledge of employment outcomes for at least 95% of graduates from both MBA and specialty master’s programs.

  • for 2021, Vanderbilt graduates achieved the following employment rates:
    • MBA – 96%, knowledge rate of 98.6%
    • MSF – 100%, knowledge rate of 98.8%
    • MAcc – 100%, knowledge rate of 100%
    • MMARK – 97%, knowledge rate of 90.9%
 Peabody College Graduate School of Education

Peabody College of Education monitors student achievement for its professional programs and, in line with the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation’s (CAEP) expectations, makes these data available. Graduation rates, licensure/certification passage rates, and employment outcomes serve as primary metrics for student achievement.

Graduation Rates

Leverage multiple years of data to inform trends and overall performance, the administration and faculty at Peabody College expect that each cohort of graduates from the various master’s programs and the in-person doctoral program will exceed a 90% graduation rate while striving for a 100% rate. For the online program, Vanderbilt expects to exceed a 70% graduation rate while striving for at least an 85% graduation rate.

  • the class of 2021 for Peabody’s master’s programs achieved a 97% graduation rate, which is up from 93% for the class of 2020
  • the class of 2021 for Peabody’s in-person doctoral programs achieved a 100% graduation rate, as did the class of 2020
  • for the online EdD program, the class of 2021 achieved a 78% graduation rate

Licensure/Certification Passage Rates

For all of Peabody’s programs leading to licensure/certification (which includes both undergraduate and professional programs), the administration and faculty monitor passage rates for both the PRAXIS II Performance and edTPA examinations. In benchmarking against the passage rates for teacher preparation programs in the state of Tennessee, Vanderbilt expects to meet or exceed a 95% passage rate on the PRAXIS II Performance exam and a 98% passage rate on the edTPA exam.

Employment Outcomes

Peabody’s Career Services team supports professional students in navigating their career search. Each year, the Career Services team produces an annual report, which presents the achievements of each cohort. Using the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) standards, Peabody expects to have a knowledge of outcomes for at least 90% of each graduating cohort, as well as an employment rate of at least 90%.

  • the Career Services 2021-2022 report shows a knowledge rate of 94% for the class of 2022, which achieved an employment rate of 97%
School of Medicine

The Vanderbilt School of Medicine (SOM) offers both graduate and professional degree programs. Generally, student achievement within the graduate programs is evaluated using the Graduate Student Achievement data presented above. However, the SOM administration and faculty do monitor two metrics locally to ensure student achievement: time to degree and productivity. With respect to the professional programs, SOM leadership monitors licensure/certification passage rates to evaluate student achievement.

Time to Degree

Using the same data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates that informs Vanderbilt’s overall graduate student achievement data, the Biological and Biomedical Sciences program expects to maintain or exceed a median time to degree of 7 years.

  • collectively, data from 2010-2020 indicate graduates achieved a median time to degree of 5.8 years

Productivity

Leadership in the SOM overseeing the graduate programs also monitors doctoral candidates’ productivity with respect to the number of publications authored. Using data from PubMed, Vanderbilt expects doctoral candidates to have published at least two papers, one of which being a first-author paper.

  • data from 2010-2020 reveal graduates from the SOM’s graduate programs published an average of over 3 papers (3.5), with at least 1 (1.5, on average) being a first-author paper

Licensure/Certification Passage Rates

Leadership in the SOM evaluate students’ performance on the United States Medical Licensing Examination’s (USMLE) Step 1 and Step 2 CK exams , and expect students to meet or exceed the national passage rates for both examinations.

Vanderbilt’s student achievement for 2020 and 2021 are presented below.

  • STEP 1 Exam Calendar Year 2020 Calendar Year 2021
    VU National VU National
    n= 90 25,007 91 27,589
    Pass Count 90 24,374 90 26,209
    Pass Percentage 100 97 99 95
    STEP 2 CK Exam AY 2020-21 AY 2021-22
    VU National VU National
    n= 107 28,077 78 28,082
    Pass Count 106 27,684 77 27,520
    Pass Percentage 99 99 99 98
School of Nursing

Vanderbilt’ School of Nursing offers fully online programs, hybrid programs, and one fully in-person program. Leadership and faculty monitor student achievement for each program, and primarily focus on graduation rates and passage rates for licensure/certification exams.

Graduation Rates

Using the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) standards, Vanderbilt expects to meet or exceed an 80% graduation rate for the Doctor of Nursing Program and a 90% graduation rate for each of its master’s programs.

  • the class of 2021 achieved a 90% graduation rate from the DNP program and an overall 95% graduation rate from the MSN programs

Passage Rates

CCNE also sets standards for passage rates, such that programs should maintain at least an 80% passage rate for both the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) and specialty examinations. Vanderbilt expects to maintain a 90% passage rate for the NCLEX and an 80% passage rate for specialty examinations.

  • VUSN’s data supports strong performance, with the most recent class (2021) having earned a passage rate of 93% on the NCLEX and at least an 80% passage rate on the specialty examinations (with the exception of a couple of programs, as shown in VUSN’s published data).

VIEW MORE EVENTS >