The U.S.’s national college completion rate has remained stagnant, with rates even falling for some populations, according to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC).
Dr. Doug Shapiro
The Completing College 2023 report – the 12th report in the series – tracked and illustrates trends in six-year college completion rates, both on a national and state-by-state basis. This year’s edition examined enrollment and completion for college students who started in Fall 2017 through June 2023, a cohort of approximately 2.4 million students.
NSC’s researchers found that, on a national level, the six-year completion rate for students who began college in Fall 2017 was 62.2%, the same as those who began in Fall 2015.
"Completion rates for the nation have stalled overall,” said NSCRC executive director Dr. Doug Shapiro, vice president of research. “They've been essentially flat for the third year in a row now. And that's following five years of gains prior."
The 62.2% includes 11% of students who transferred and completed their credential at a different school from where they started, he said.
Differentiated by school type, the trends demonstrated more fluctuation. All the four-year college sectors – public four-year, private nonprofit four-year, and private for-profit four-year – saw declines when compared with outcomes from the 2015 cohort, with decreases ranging from 0.4% to 1.6%. Public two-year schools, however, saw a 1.2% increase in the same period.
These general sector trends held true for the Fall 2016 cohort as well, with public two-year colleges being the only sector to see some improvement, 43.1% to 43.4%.
