<p>Princeton & Notre Dame with 90.1% 4-yr grad rate top the tables on 4 year Graduation rates at Private Schools.
No surprise to see 8 Ivy's among top 16 , pleasant surprise to see Villanova at # 17.</p>
<p>With the cost of Private College , a degree in 4 years is an important value factor.</p>
<p>Best</a> Values in Private Colleges, 2011-12</p>
<p>Sort 4-yr grad. rate tab.</p>
<p>The real issues with using that data set is it’s just the colleges picked as Best Value by Kiplingers. That selection is up to debate. There are many other schools which cost less and for which the graduation rate is higher than most on that list.</p>
<p>The last data I saw a year ago had UVa and William and Mary as the two public colleges with the highest 4 year graduation rates. </p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that at many colleges, a higher percentage of students graduate in 4.5 years, particularly if they have majors that need more than 120 credits. Sometimes 4.5 year data is available, but it usually is 4 year and 6 year.</p>
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<p>Many of the schools that cost much less are public institutions.
Kiplinger does have a separate table for public schools:
[Best</a> Values in Public Colleges, 2011-12](<a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/colleges/]Best”>Best College Values, 2019 | Kiplinger)</p>
<p>Notice that the graduation rates on the public list tend to be lower.
I can’t think of many schools that cost much less than $50K and have 4 yr graduation rates much above 85%. Examples (other than niche schools like the service academies)?</p>
<p>[Highest</a> 4-Year Graduation Rates | Rankings | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/highest-grad-rate]Highest”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/highest-grad-rate)</p>
<p>Comprehensive list including Liberal Arts schools and Service Academies and smaller schools.</p>
<p>Webb Institute leads the list with 96% , but has 80 students so they are statistically irrelevant.</p>
<p>Curious to know to what degree students attend summer session at schools with high 4 year rates. Additional tuition, room and board, plus less opportunity to work in the summer.</p>
<p>What may actually be more relevant is the graduation rate within eight semesters or twelve quarters. At some schools, it is common for students to take a semester or quarter off working at a co-op job (e.g. Northeastern University, and probably some other schools with a more pre-professionally oriented student body). Such students are likely to take longer than four calendar years to graduate, even if they are attending (and paying tuition for) only eight semesters or twelve quarters.</p>
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The midpoint on the list is under 70%. Off the top of my head I picked Sewanee which costs <$42K and has an 80% graduation rate in four years. There are more.</p>
<p>I saw a book of data that tried to compare actual 4 year graduation rates to the rate that would normally be expected for the types of students that are admitted by each college. </p>
<p>The more selective universities would naturally have a higher graduation rate. If a university accepts students who are well-prepared academically and have successfully completed college level work in high school, they are much more likely to be able to handle college level work and graduate on time.</p>
<p>If a university has an affluent student body and/or meets 100% of financial need of all students, those students are: a) much less likely to drop out of school for economic reasons and b) much less likely to need to work many hours while they are in class, which could otherwise delay graduation.</p>
<p>When you go through the fafsa process, the federal government now shows you graduation rates for each college.</p>
<p>I’m not totally clear how transfer rates contribute to these numbers. Some colleges have high transfer rates because students run out of money, or because many students don’t like the experience. However, those students may still graduate on time, from another college.</p>
<p>However, the graduation rates of many public colleges are really sad.</p>
<p>What the heck happened at Harvard? Not too many years ago Harvard was reporting a 4-year grad rate of 93 or 93%.</p>
<p>The Harvard administration encourages people to take leaves of absence if they’re feeling burnt out, or want to travel, or recuperate from illness at home, etc.</p>
<p>Graduation rates don’t always tell the whole story. At my own school many people who choose to double major take an extra semester/year to graduate because it’s almost impossible to write two research theses in one school year.</p>
<p>couple of factors which contribute mightily to 4-year grad rate: wealth of the student body; and financial aid offered. Both mean that students don’t have to work to pay bills, unlike at most publics which don’t meet full financial need.</p>