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: 939		 Private - for profit colleges
Total: 93
Completion & Progression Graduation rate 58.7 % 56.3 % 65.0 % 20.3 %
First-year retention rate 79.8 % 80.0 % 80.4 % 43.9 %
Efficiency Cost per student (FTE) $17,883 $15,017 $26,033 $8,388
Productivity Cost per degree $70,503 $61,849 $90,538 $40,996
Cost of attrition * $4.34 billion $2.51 billion $1.69 billion No Data
Gainful Employment Student loan default rate 6.4 % 4.9 % 4.4 % 16.4 %
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.