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Performance across the 1,575 four-year colleges on CollegeMeasures.org

Strategic Measures

What is the performance of four-year colleges in the United States, based on seven strategic performance measures?

Goal Strategic Measure Outcomes
All colleges
Total: 1,575		 Public colleges
Total: 543		 Private - not for profit colleges
Total: 936		 Private - for profit colleges
Total: 96
Completion & Progression Graduation rate 59.0 % 56.7 % 64.9 % 25.0 %
First-year retention rate 79.7 % 79.8 % 80.6 % 52.1 %
Efficiency Cost per student (FTE) $18,321 $15,301 $26,389 $9,479
Productivity Cost per degree $70,537 $61,679 $91,933 $38,843
Cost of attrition * $4.46 billion $2.60 billion $1.76 billion No Data
Gainful Employment Student loan default rate 7.2 % 5.9 % 5.0 % 14.8 %
Ratio of student loan payments to earnings per recent graduates Not available at
a national level

* Amount spent by the college to educate first-year undergraduate students (first-time, full-time) who did not begin a second year.

See methodology for the treatment of missing data in the aggregates.