Fresno State Students Dropping Out

About 160 students dropped out of Fresno State during the first four weeks of the semester, according to the Fresno State Enrollment Management office. That is fewer than in spring 2020 when the pandemic hit. That semester, 234 students dropped out.

“Last year, we had about 90 students who had dropped from the first day of classes to today,” said Malisa Lee, associate vice president for enrollment management. “So in comparison, we have roughly, you know, 70 more students who have dropped out of the university compared to last fall.”

Julie Nguyen, a business student and president’s scholar at the Smittcamp Family Honors College, said students hoped that once they get back onto campus, they could interact with their friends, faculty and others in person.

“When I was an officer for the Smithcamp family scholars board, that was one of the things that we really struggled with was to try to retain engagement; we didn’t want any scholars to drop out,” Nguyen said.

Even though Nguyen and other students are still focused on school and are preparing to graduate next year, they are not surprised students are dropping out of Fresno State.

As students want opportunities to help them further their growth, for some that means working instead of going to school. Just last year, two of Nguyen’s friends dropped out.

“They started freshman year, and then they just, I think during the time that they were doing stuff online, they really felt like their college experience wasn’t really helping to further their career growth,” Nguyen said. So they started working. And so after that, they just told me, ‘I’m gonna take a gap year, and I’m gonna go work, and then I’ll come back and decide when school is in person again.'”