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National Center for Education Statistics

NOTE: Title IV institutions are those with a written agreement with the U.S. Department of Education that allows the institution to participate in any of the Title IV federal student financial assistance programs. United States includes the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The four U.S. service academies that are not Title IV eligible are included in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) universe because they are federally funded and open to the public and are included in this table. For 4-year institutions, retention rate is the percentage of first-time bachelor’s (or equivalent) degree-seeking undergraduates from the previous fall who are again enrolled in the current fall. For all other institutions, retention rate is the percentage of first-time degree/certificate-seeking students from the previous fall who either reenrolled or successfully completed their program by the current fall. Attendance status (full- or part-time) was determined by the institutions in fall 2019, but the fall 2019 adjusted cohort (revised cohort minus any allowable exclusions) and the number of students in the cohort still enrolled in fall 2020 were both reported during the Spring 2021 data collection. The revised cohort is the number of students entering the institution as full-time, first-time degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates in the reference year. Allowable exclusions include those students who died or were totally and permanently disabled; students who left school to serve in the armed forces (or have been called up to active duty); those who left to serve with a foreign aid service of the federal government, such as the Peace Corps; and those who left to serve on official church missions. Definitions for terms used in this table may be found in the collection year’s archived downloadable glossary located at https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/use-the-data/annual-survey-forms-packages-archived?year=2020.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS, Spring 2021, Fall Enrollment component (final data).