UW-Green Bay to graduate record mid-year class

The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay expects to send off a record mid-year class at the end of the current semester, with 512 students who have applied for graduation and are therefore eligible to participate in commencement exercises Saturday, Dec. 13, according to the University’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment.

Ninety-eight percent (500) of the candidates for graduation are set to complete undergraduate degrees, while 2 percent (12 students) are completing master’s degrees. UW-Green Bay’s previous undergraduate record for December commencement was 459 in 2012.

The undergraduate degree applicants are divided evenly between students who started at UW-Green Bay as new freshmen and those who transferred to the University from elsewhere. Four percent of undergraduate degree candidates are U.S. military veterans and 17 percent are children or spouses of veterans.

Sixty-four percent of the undergraduate degree applicants are younger than 25 years old, while 14 percent are between ages 25 and 29 and 22 percent are 30 or older. They range in age from 20 to 62, with an average age of 27 years. The average age of master’s degree applicants is 33 years old. Sixty-six percent of undergraduate degree candidates and 42 percent of master’s candidates are women.

The undergraduate graduation candidates include 54 students of color (11 percent of the total) from a range of backgrounds: 17 Asian American, seven Native American, 12 Mexican or Hispanic America, six African American and 12 students from multiple racial or ethnic categories. First Nations graduates represent the Bad River, Creek, Menominee, Oneida, Red Cliff, Sioux and Stockbridge Munsee tribes and bands. Graduates have addresses in nine foreign countries (the Bahamas, China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and Uzbekistan), 17 states besides Wisconsin and 58 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. Nearly two-thirds of graduates — 64 percent — will be among the first generation in their families to complete a bachelor’s degree.

As usual, area high schools are well represented among potential graduates. Nearly a quarter (24 percent) of the undergraduate degree candidates completed high school in Brown County. Five local high schools have more than 10 alumni applying to graduate this winter; they are Bay Port (20), Green Bay Preble (19), Green Bay Southwest (13), Pulaski (12) and De Pere (11).

Online learning has been a popular option for the December 2014 commencement applicants. Eighty-six percent of undergraduate candidates completed at least one online course at UW-Green Bay, while 21 percent completed more credits online than in traditional classes and 11 percent completed all of their UW-Green Bay courses online. Sixty-nine percent of undergraduate applicants attended summer sessions, while 17 percent completed classes during one or more January interim term. The undergraduate candidates’ average cumulative GPA is 3.20 and 19 percent have GPAs of 3.75 or higher.

Of the candidates for graduation, eight undergraduate students will be completing an associate degree, while the remaining 492 will complete bachelor’s degrees. Thirty-four percent are completing a single major, 54 percent are completing a major and at least one minor, and 12 percent are completing two or more majors. The five majors with the most undergraduate applicants are Business Administration (71), Psychology (61), Nursing (53), Elementary Education (49) and Interdisciplinary Studies or Integrative Leadership Studies (49). Master’s candidates include seven from Environmental Science and Policy, three from Management, one from Applied Leadership for Teaching and Learning and one from Sustainable Management.

Mid-year commencement ceremonies will take place at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 13 at the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts on campus, 2420 Nicolet Drive. More information is available at www.uwgb.edu/commencement.

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