4-Year College Graduation Rates

Today we’re talking about college graduation rates.

Did you know that when the federal government publishes those at CollegeScorecard.ed.gov, they’re actually showing you the 8-year graduation rate? And I don’t think most students want to take eight years to get their first bachelor’s degree. I think we’d like to take four years or fewer, thank you very much.

The good news is many colleges publish their Common Data Set right there on their website. And if you can find it, search Section B4, and you’ll find this neat little table. With a little bit of division, you can find out the average four-year graduation rate, five-year graduation rate, and in the bottom right corner, printed right there for you, the average six-year graduation rate.

Now, a high rate is no guarantee that you’ll graduate on time, and a low rate is no guarantee that you won’t. But they do give you a good idea of how good of a job that college does shepherding students through this process to ensure they wind up with a degree after all of this time and money.

And I’ll be honest—I don’t care if one college has a 92% four-year graduation rate while another college has a 90% four-year graduation rate. That is negligible. But I do care if one college is at 92% while another college is at 46%. And that’s important information for you to consider when weighing which colleges to apply to and eventually which college to enroll in.

And that’s especially true if you’re going to college on a budget, where you may be finding a less expensive college per year. But if it takes you an extra year to graduate, that will blow away any savings that you may have found.

And double-check your award letter, because if you’re given a four-year scholarship, that scholarship may not continue if you need an extra semester or two or more to finish your studies and get that degree.

So look over all of this data, consider it seriously, and if you have questions, call us at 732-556-8220.