Persistence & Retention – 2019

First-Year Persistence and Retention for Fall 2017 Cohort

• Of the 3.5 million students who enrolled in college for the first time in fall 2017, 74 percent or 2.6 million students persisted as of fall 2018.
• The overall first-year persistence rate has improved slightly, with a 2.2 percentage point gain between 2009 and 2017.
• New to this year’s report are the persistence rates for top five popular major fields in baccalaureate and sub-baccalaureate programs.    

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Overall Persistence and Retention Rates

Among all students who enrolled in college for the first time in fall 2017, 73.8 percent persisted at any U.S. institution in fall 2018, while 61.7 percent were retained at their starting institution. The “persistence rate” is measured by the percentage of students who return to college at any institution for their second year, while the “retention rate” is the percentage of students who return to the same institution. The overall persistence rate for the fall 2017 entering cohort remained virtually the same as that of the previous cohort, but this rate represents an increase of 2.2 percentage points compared to fall 2009. Over the past nine years ending in 2017, an average of 13 percent or one in eight students who started college in any fall term transferred to a different institution by the following fall.

Note: Prior to 2015, non-degree, non-certificate-seeking students were included in the full-time and part-time categories. This change is the cause of the jump in part-time retention rates from 2014 to 2015.

Persistence and Retention by Race and Ethnicity

Among students who for the first time entered college in fall 2017, Asians had the highest persistence rate (84.7 percent), with 72.7 percent returning to the starting institution and 12 percent returning to an institution other than the starting institution in fall 2018. Black students had the lowest persistence rate (66.2 percent): just over half of black students returned to the starting institution (52.1 percent) and an additional 14.1 percent continued at a different institution.

Note: Institutions provided race and ethnicity data to the Clearinghouse for 75 percent of the students reported in the fall 2017 entering cohort.

Persistence and Retention by Age at College Entry

Fall 2017 entering college students who were 21- to 24-years-old at college entry had a persistence rate of 57.6 percent. This represents an increase of 3.5 percentage points over the fall 2009 entering cohort. Students aged 20 or younger had a persistence rate of 76.9 percent, down 2.1 percentage points from the fall 2009 entering cohort. This group also showed the highest spread between persistence and retention rates, with about 15 percent, or one in seven students, enrolling in a different institution in their second fall term. Students aged 25 or older at college entry had a persistence rate of 53.3 percent, a figure that has remained essentially flat across all cohort years shown here.

Persistence and Retention: Starting at Four-Year Public Institutions

For students who started college in fall 2017 at four-year public institutions, the persistence rate was 82.7 percent, down 0.3 percentage points from the prior year, and up 0.4 percentage points in comparison to the fall 2009 cohort. The persistence rate was 88.2 percent for those who entered college on a full-time basis, compared to 64.8 percent for those who entered college on a part-time basis. Of all students who started college in this sector in fall 2017, 71.2 percent returned to the same institution in fall 2018.