Graduating within four years is the gold standard for anyone footing the bill for college tuition. Only three private nonprofit institutions and no public or for-profit institutions had four-year graduation rates exceeding 90 percent for the cohort of students who began their studies in 2008. Among sectors, private nonprofit institutions had the highest median four-year graduation rate, but it was under 50 percent.
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4-year public institutions
| 1. | U. of Virginia | 3,240 | 87.9% |
| 2. | College of William & Mary | 1,396 | 84.5% |
| 3. | U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | 3,944 | 83.6% |
| 4. | U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor | 6,443 | 76.5% |
| 5. | U. of California at Berkeley | 4,081 | 76.2% |
| 6. | College of New Jersey | 1,421 | 74.9% |
| 7. | U. of California at Los Angeles | 4,632 | 73.9% |
| 8. | U. of California at Irvine | 4,404 | 71.3% |
| 9. | U. of Delaware | 3,365 | 71.3% |
| 10. | State U. of New York College at Geneseo | 1,009 | 71.3% |
| 11. | Binghamton U. | 2,196 | 71.1% |
| 12. | U. of Connecticut | 3,288 | 70.0% |
| 13. | U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | 6,902 | 69.9% |
| 14. | U.S. Merchant Marine Academy | 302 | 69.2% |
| 15. | U. of California at Santa Barbara | 3,696 | 69.1% |
| 16. | U. of Maryland at College Park | 3,918 | 68.9% |
| 17. | Pennsylvania State U. at University Park | 7,319 | 67.5% |
| 18. | U. of Florida | 6,345 | 67.4% |
| 19. | U. of Massachusetts at Amherst | 4,456 | 67.0% |
| 20. | U. of New Hampshire | 2,686 | 66.8% |
| 21. | Miami U. (Ohio) | 3,574 | 66.3% |
| 22. | St. Mary’s College of Maryland | 443 | 65.2% |
| 23. | James Madison U. | 3,995 | 65.1% |
| 24. | U. of Washington | 5,460 | 64.6% |
| 25. | U. of Pittsburgh main campus | 3,698 | 63.7% |
| 26. | U. of North Carolina School of the Arts | 142 | 63.4% |
| 27. | Christopher Newport U. | 1,150 | 62.9% |
| 28. | U. of Georgia | 4,667 | 62.2% |
| 29. | U. of Vermont | 2,452 | 62.1% |
| 30. | U. of Mary Washington | 950 | 61.7% |
| 31. | Massachusetts Maritime Academy | 279 | 61.3% |
| 32. | Ramapo College of New Jersey | 893 | 61.3% |
| 33. | U. of Minnesota-Twin Cities | 5,310 | 61.2% |
| 34. | Virginia Tech | 5,131 | 61.0% |
| 35. | Florida State U. | 5,957 | 60.8% |
| 36. | State U. of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry | 254 | 60.2% |
| 37. | The Citadel | 617 | 60.1% |
| 38. | Indiana U. at Bloomington | 6,970 | 59.8% |
| 39. | Rutgers U. at New Brunswick | 5,792 | 59.2% |
| 40. | Clemson U. | 2,977 | 59.0% |
| | Median for 572 institutions | 1,107 | 23.5% |
4-year private nonprofit institutions
| 1. | Pomona College | 401 | 92.0% |
| 2. | Davidson College | 499 | 90.6% |
| 3. | Georgetown U. | 1,569 | 90.1% |
| 4. | U. of Notre Dame | 2,056 | 89.8% |
| 5. | U. of Chicago | 1,383 | 89.4% |
| 6. | Bowdoin College | 507 | 89.3% |
| 7. | Boston College | 2,268 | 89.3% |
| 8. | Princeton U. | 1,311 | 89.2% |
| 9. | Kenyon College | 483 | 88.8% |
| 10. | College of the Holy Cross | 727 | 88.7% |
| 11. | Hamilton College (N.Y.) | 467 | 88.7% |
| 12. | Washington U. in St. Louis | 1,619 | 88.3% |
| 13. | Carleton College | 511 | 88.3% |
| 14. | Dartmouth College | 1,136 | 88.1% |
| 15. | Washington and Lee U. | 470 | 87.9% |
| 16. | Swarthmore College | 387 | 87.6% |
| 17. | Vanderbilt U. | 1,598 | 87.4% |
| 18. | Wesleyan U. (Conn.) | 748 | 87.2% |
| 19. | Cornell U. | 3,172 | 87.1% |
| 20. | Manhattan School of Music | 93 | 87.1% |
| 21. | Johns Hopkins U. | 1,322 | 87.0% |
| 22. | Babson College | 490 | 86.7% |
| 23. | Tufts U. | 1,313 | 86.7% |
| 24. | Vassar College | 665 | 86.6% |
| 25. | Haverford College | 325 | 86.5% |
| 26. | Yale U. | 1,343 | 86.4% |
| 27. | Villanova U. | 1,647 | 86.3% |
| 28. | Duke U. | 1,749 | 86.3% |
| 29. | Harvard U. | 1,663 | 86.2% |
| 30. | Williams College | 548 | 85.9% |
| 31. | Smith College | 630 | 85.7% |
| 32. | Amherst College | 489 | 85.7% |
| 33. | Claremont McKenna College | 314 | 85.7% |
| 34. | Soka U. of America | 103 | 85.4% |
| 35. | Columbia U. | 1,392 | 85.3% |
| 36. | Lafayette College | 648 | 85.3% |
| 37. | St. Olaf College | 844 | 85.2% |
| 38. | Emory U. | 1,321 | 85.2% |
| 39. | Harvey Mudd College | 194 | 85.1% |
| 40. | Skidmore College | 768 | 85.0% |
| | Median for 973 institutions | 356 | 44.2% |
4-year for-profit institutions
| 1. | Pima Medical Institute at Tucson | 175 | 78.3% |
| 2. | International Business College at Fort Wayne (Ind.) | 55 | 70.9% |
| 3. | Monroe College (N.Y.) | 413 | 61.7% |
| 4. | School of Visual Arts | 667 | 55.8% |
| 5. | Bob Jones U.* | 576 | 50.2% |
| 6. | Neumont U. (now Neumont College of Computer Science) | 132 | 50.0% |
| 7. | Southern California Institute of Technology | 150 | 48.7% |
| 8. | U. of Antelope Valley | 75 | 48.0% |
| 9. | LIM College | 328 | 46.0% |
| 10. | Art Institute of York-Pennsylvania | 99 | 44.4% |
| 11. | Art Institute of California at San Diego | 179 | 41.3% |
| 12. | Full Sail U. | 12,521 | 40.8% |
| 13. | Santa Fe U. of Art and Design | 105 | 38.1% |
| 14. | Grand Canyon U. | 816 | 35.7% |
| 15. | Illinois Institute of Art at Schaumburg | 135 | 35.6% |
| 16. | Central Penn College | 111 | 34.2% |
| 17. | Expression College for Digital Arts | 197 | 33.5% |
| 18. | Brown College at Mendota Heights (Minn.) | 74 | 31.1% |
| 19. | McNally Smith College of Music | 59 | 30.5% |
| 20. | South College (Tenn.) | 189 | 30.2% |
| | Median for 137 institutions | 174 | 17.2% |
* Bob Jones University announced in 2017 that it had regained nonprofit status, after having lost it 34 years earlier because of its ban on interracial dating and marriage.
Note: Only degree-granting U.S. colleges that are eligible to participate in Title IV federal financial-aid programs, with at least 50 students in the degree-seeking cohort, are included. Four-year graduation rates reflect the percentage of first-time, full-time, bachelor’s-degree-seeking students who entered in 2010 and completed bachelor’s or equivalent degrees at the same institution within four years (by August 31, 2014). Those are the latest available data for four-year graduation rates. Cohorts are adjusted to exclude students who died, were permanently disabled, or left to serve in the military or with a foreign-aid agency or official church mission. Students who transferred and then graduated from another institution are not counted as having graduated. Percentages are rounded, but ranks are ordered on the basis of unrounded figures. Questions or comments on the Almanac should be sent to the Almanac editor.
Source: Chronicle analysis of U.S. Department of Education data