Find the loss point
Join cohorts and milestones to locate the strongest verified break in momentum.
UNF student success · portfolio prototype
Completion Momentum
The institutional problem
More students return after year one. Fewer finish within four years.
First-year retention increased from 79% to 85%, while four-year graduation declined from 50.6% to 45%. Early persistence gains are not producing comparable improvements in timely completion.
Gap to UNF goal−9.0percentage points
45% actual / 54% goal
The question I answered
Are UNF’s retention gains translating into better four-year completion?
THE ANSWERNo.
Retention increased six percentage points while four-year graduation declined 5.6 points and remains nine points below the goal.
MY CONTRIBUTION
I sourced and cleaned public institutional data, reconciled metrics covering different cohorts, identified the retention-to-completion disconnect, quantified the goal gap, and converted the finding into a decision-readiness framework and working cohort-file validator.
Before and after my analysis
I turned scattered data into a defined institutional decision.
Before the analysisAfter the analysis
Retention and graduation data was scattered across public reporting.The metrics were connected into one institutional challenge.
Improved retention could be interpreted as success.The analysis showed that the gain was not reaching timely completion.
The graduation shortfall lacked a clear decision frame.The gap was quantified at nine percentage points.
The required internal evidence was undefined.A minimum cohort schema and data dictionary were designed.
No file-readiness workflow existed in the project.A tested, privacy-conscious CSV validator was built.
Intervention success was not operationally defined.A baseline, comparison, target, and review framework were specified.
The target
We are not at the goal yet.
Current45%
Gap to close9.0percentage points
Goal54%
How to get there
Target one response
Match an intervention to that confirmed barrier and define the affected cohort.
Measure the result
Track a baseline, milestone target, and completion outcome on a set review cadence.
Why this matters in real life
It turns a graduation statistic into an operational decision.
A university can see that students are returning without knowing where they later fall behind. This product connects the milestones between enrollment and graduation so teams can find a verified point of friction, respond earlier, and measure whether the response worked.
For students
Surface registration gaps, credit shortfalls, or gateway-course delays before they become extra semesters or stop-outs.
For advisors
Prioritize outreach using confirmed milestones instead of relying only on broad retention averages or reactive referrals.
For leaders
Direct limited support toward the strongest verified bottleneck, with a baseline, target, and review cadence.
Intended outcome
Convert more retention gains into timely degrees and test which action contributed. This outcome is proposed—not yet measured.
First-year retention
85.0%+6.0 pp from 2020–21Four-year graduation
45.0%−5.6 pp from 2018–22Completion goal
54.0%9.0 pp above current rateEarly persistence
Retention is recovering
Timely completion
Graduation is declining
What I built
The dashboard was the output—not the entire project.
Research, analysis, requirements, validation logic, and decision design were combined into one working case study.
Institutional analysis
Cleaned and reconciled public retention, graduation, and institutional-goal metrics across reporting periods.
Decision framework
Separated observed evidence, unanswered questions, decision impact, and unmeasured outcome impact.
Data specification
Designed the minimum cohort-level dataset required to locate where student momentum is lost.
Working product
Built and tested a browser-based CSV validator for schema, duplicate, missing-value, and format checks.
Analytical workflow
From scattered evidence to a responsible next decision
Each step is traceable. The project does not jump from a public statistic to an unsupported intervention.
- 01Defined the institutional question
- 02Collected public performance data
- 03Cleaned and reconciled the metrics
- 04Compared retention with graduation
- 05Quantified the nine-point goal gap
- 06Tested the evidence boundary
- 07Designed the cohort schema and validator
- 08Created the pilot measurement framework
Technical proof
Working now
- Local, browser-only CSV processing
- Required-column and schema validation
- Duplicate-ID and missing-value detection
- Numeric and Boolean format checks
- Downloadable cohort template
- Automated validation and rendering tests
Skills demonstrated
Analytics, product, and judgment
Analytics
Data cleaning · metric reconciliation · trend analysis · gap analysis · cohort design
Product
CSV parsing · schema validation · data-quality checks · testing · responsive development
Decision support
Problem framing · requirements · data governance · stakeholder communication · evaluation planning
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