bested Westwood College-Dallas (0%), Argosy Univ-Dallas (14%), and Arlington Baptist College (34%).

Incidentally, all 4 enroll fewer than 1,000 students.

trailed South Univ-The Art Inst. of Dallas (41%), DeVry Univ-Texas (41%), Paul Quinn College (44%), and Messenger College (50%), and others, ending with Southern Methodist Univ (90%).

14 out of the other 42 colleges were ruled out due to missing, unknown, or not-applicable values for full-time retention rate, e.g., DeVry Univ's Keller Graduate School of Management-Texas.

1. Student retention data are from the file total entering class, retention rates, and student-to-faculty ratio: Fall 2012 (Provisional release) as reported by the National Center for Education Statistics (http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds).
   
2. Distance calculations between two colleges use a mathematical formula for the distance on a sphere between two points.
   

South Univ-The Art Inst. of Fort Worth is in Fort Worth, TX, is private and for-profit, degree-granting, is on the quarter system, its top Associates major is graphic design, and enrolls fewer than 1,000 students.

• average full-time teaching salary ($47,514)
• in-state undergrad tuition & fees ($17,868)
• out-of-state undergrad tuition & fees ($17,868)
• average undergrad student loan ($7,352)
• average grant aid to undergrads ($4,937)
• endowment per full-time student ($0)
• in-state freshmen (97.4%)
• undergrads who get financial aid (92%)
• undergrads who receive student loans (88%)
• undergrads who get Pell grants (74%)
• ratio of female full-time freshmen (49%)
• minorities (40.6%)
• undergrads who are 25 years or older (40.5%)
• full-time retention rate (37%)
• Hispanics (23.9%)
• Blacks or African Americans (14.4%)
• average teaching salary differential (men vs. women, 14.2%)
• disabled students (7%)
• tuition & fees increase over three years (3.6%)
• Asians (2.1%)
• American Indians or Alaska Natives (0.2%)
• non-resident tuition & fees surcharge (0%)
• foreign students (0%)
• average teaching salary differential (women vs. men, -12.4%)
• alumni who played in the National Football League (0)
• average January temperature (46.9 degrees)
• first-year applicants (139)
• foreign students (0)
• full-time undergrads (280)
• members of the National Academy of Sciences (0)
• men's basketball Final Four appearances (0)
• Rhodes Scholar alumni (0)
• undergrads (398)
• yearly for-credit students (568)
• on-campus yearly property crimes per thousand students (0.9)
• students per faculty member (20)
• annual rainfall (34.2 inches)
• elevation (221 meters)

Sources