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National Center for Education Statistics

1Four-year institutions report retention rates for bachelor’s degree-seeking undergraduates in the fall 2015 cohort.

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. 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. 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 2015, but the fall 2015 adjusted cohort and the number of students in the cohort still enrolled in fall 2016 were both reported during the Spring 2017 data collection. Definitions for terms used in this table may be found in the IPEDS online glossary located at https://surveys.nces.ed.gov/ipeds/VisGlossaryAll.aspx.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS, Spring 2017, Fall Enrollment component (final data).