Not only are college graduation rates significantly lower than high school rates, but an extreme difference exists between the most competitive and least competitive colleges, according to Diplomas and Dropouts: Which Colleges Actually Graduate Their Students (and Which Don't).
The study, released by the American Enterprise Institute, provides an apples-to-apples comparison by graduation rates. The results expose the dramatic variation in completion rates across nearly 1,400 colleges and universities.
Institutions are divided into six groupings: "Most competitive," "highly competitive," "very competitive," "competitive," "less competitive," and "noncompetitive." Results are further analyzed by region, and whether the institutions are historically black college and universities or institutions of high Hispanic enrollment.
Findings include:
- Schools with the least selective admissions criteria have the lowest average graduation rates. "Noncompetitive" institutions graduate, on average, 35 percent of their students within six years, while the "most competitive" institutions graduate 88 percent.
- There is wide variation in graduation rates across institutions within the same selectivity categories. Within the same group of "competitive" schools, the top ten have an average graduation rate of more than 75 percent, while the bottom ten graduate just 20 percent in six years.
- For instance, the University of Louisville in Kentucky and James Madison University in Virginia are both "very competitive" state schools that charge about $7,000 in tuition. While Louisville only graduates 44 percent of its students in six years, James Madison graduates 81 percent.
- Hundreds of institutions fail to graduate a majority of their students in six years, yet these colleges and universities still receive tens of billions of dollars from taxpayers every year. At a time of fiscal constraints and tight budgets, voters and public officials should be aware of institutions that are not accomplishing their most basic task of graduating students.
About the Report:
Title: Diplomas and Dropouts: Which Colleges Actually Graduate Their Students (and Which Don't) (80 pages, 264 KB, PDF)
Prepared by: The American Enterprise Institute
Date Published: June 2009