Colleges are using big data to track students in an effort to boost graduation rates, but it comes at a cost

According to the National Student Clearinghouse, only about half of students who start college actually earn degrees. To address this problem, an estimated 1,400 colleges and universities are turning to predictive analytics to find trends and patterns to reshape the college experience for students and put them on a narrow, data-driven path to earn a diploma. Monitoring students in this way, however, has both benefits and costs.