Bachelor’s degree completion rates not only differ by whether they reflect the institutional or student perspective, but also by which subcategories of beginning students are included when calculating the rates. For example, if the calculation includes only those beginners with a bachelor’s degree goal (90 percent of all beginners at 4-year institutions), then the rate of completion at the first 4-year institution attended was 55 percent. Including only first-time beginners who were enrolled full time when they started and also had a bachelor’s degree goal (83 percent of all beginners), the bachelor’s degree completion rate at the first 4-year institution was 58 percent.

Sometimes interest centers on recent high school graduates (those who started college immediately after high school, who made up 83 percent of the beginners at 4-year institutions). Among all the beginners at 4-year institutions who were recent high school graduates, the rate of bachelor’s degree completion at the first institution was 55 percent, while it was 64 percent at any 4-year institution. But including only those first-time beginners who were recent high school graduates, had a bachelor’s degree goal, and also started as full-time students (73 percent of all beginners at 4-year institutions), the 6-year completion rate at the first institution attended was 61 percent, and it was 69 percent at any 4-year institution.