Hey...here's something I actually know about!

Actually, we do offer full 4 year degrees at all of our KSU branches. The amount of programs offered are pretty small in number as compared to main campus and the larger branches.

Most of our branch students fall under one of these:
Non-traditional students
Students working on their associates
Undergraduates who have lower GPA's and attend and get their grades up. They tend to transfer to the main campus after doing so. (Our new/incoming freshman had the highest GPA in the history of KSU, so it's slightly more competitive)

That would expain why the graduation rates are so low. It's not exactly a true reflection of the students specific situations.

I talked to a few people at work today. They tended to agree with me, but more who start at the OU branches seem to transfer to OU or OSU than I realize.

However, they also brought to light that there are students there who are strictly there to abuse the system. They get grants and loans, and then are able to withdraw that money, and then use it for anything other than education purposes. They were telling me stories about students who'd withdraw aid money and spend it on drugs, their boyfriends would take it, make car payments, rent payments, etc. One guys entire family lived off that money for a year or so while he was enrolled. They enroll with no intention of ever graduating, and no intention of ever paying that money back.

How does that even work? I was a little in disbelief over that.

It certainly does happen. I've been told that my state is working on cracking down on much of that, as some students are enrolling in universities (sometimes multiple universities), getting money and dropping out weeks into terms.

Yeah, I heard it from a student at the BR campus.

This type of article is exactly why it is always best to dig a little deeper to find out what the real deal is.