Why YOU Should Care About College Graduation Rates

money representing why you should care about college graduation rates

When high school students start looking for colleges to apply to, they rarely consider college graduation rates. Even with the sky-rocketing costs of college, most families still don’t consider graduation rates. They may notice it when a school advertises its four-year graduation guarantee but I suspect most just dismiss it as not applying to “their” situation. Share824Tweet10FlipEmailPin6341.5K … Read more

3 Cheapest Colleges by Graduation Rates

Graduation caps and roll of money representing 3 cheapest colleges by graduation rates

(Skip to the end to see the list of top three college by graduation rates.) When trying to identify the cheapest colleges (or most affordable or hidden bargains or whatever your preferred terminology happens to be) it’s probably a good idea to keep in mind the saying, “you get what you pay for.” Unfortunately, too … Read more

How to Find Student-Athlete Graduation Rates

graduate holding a football representing athlete graduation rates

The NCAA has a public service announcement stating that most of their athletes go pro in something other than sports. They actually provide a table with the probability of competing beyond high school and the percentage who actually make it to the professional level. Given this information, any sensible athlete should pay serious attention to the student … Read more

Essential Guide to College Graduation Rates

table listing colleges with the highest graduation rate statistics

If you’re just looking for the latest college graduation rate statistics, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) the 4-year graduation rate for  four-year colleges in the United States is 42%. For private colleges, it is 54% and the 4-year rate for public institutions is 37%. This is for students starting in 2011. … Read more

Why You Should Pay More Attention to College Graduation Rates Rather Than Retention Rates

Anyone who reads my blog for a while will realize that I have a thing about college graduation rates. One of the “50’s” in my 50-50 schools is graduation rates. And I can’t say it’s just something I started paying attention to as my son got closer to college. My master’s report was on high … Read more

50-50 Highlights: Colleges with Highest Graduation Rates by State

The idea behind listing 50-50 colleges is that they offer most high school students a reasonable chance of admissions with an equally reasonable chance of graduation. As I’ve mentioned before, the most expensive college is the one you don’t graduate from. And while depressing, a 50% graduation rate is actually a fairly high standard. Out … Read more

50-50 Highlights: Colleges with the Best Graduation Rates

happy college graduates representing colleges with the best graduation rates

People are generally a little surprised when I recommend using 50% as the minimum graduation rate for looking for colleges. It does seem like a pretty low standard but the fact is that only approximately a quarter of colleges and universities have a four-year graduation rate of 49% or higher. If you use the five-year … Read more

How Come No One is Talking About Pathetic College Graduation Rates?

Collge graduates representing college graduation rates

If college graduation rates were high school graduation rates, every politician, pundit, and policy wonk would be in the mainstream media talking about the crisis of college dropouts and devising ways to tie faculty evaluation to student graduation. Not that such an approach is necessarily the answer. After all, given the situation with high school … Read more