US College Graduation Rates by State - 2010 Ranking

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Related Articles:
Last Year's Ranking
US College Graduation Rates by State for 2009-10 graduates
College Graduation Rates by State for 2008-09 graduates
US College Graduation Rates by Race by State - 2009 IPEDS

Due partly to the economic downturn, college enrollments throughout the United State are going up and President Obama's call for more higher education have been partially answered. However, to fully respond to Obama's call for more education for our kids, we need pay attentions to students' success too. College graduation rate is one of such measures.

To pursue this agenda, we compiled the IPEDS graduation data collected by the US department of Education in a state by state basis. The idea is to put the data out in the public and, hopefully, it will be used to drive states' public education agenda and achieve the goal of improving our higher education's performance.

In doing so, we decided to publish the graduation rate data related to public institutions since, for most states, public institutions are what state governments have much more influence on. We also decided to concentrate on the public four year colleges and  the public two year colleges since, based on a published data, it had been shown that there are very few public institutions that fall into categories of less-than-two year or non-degree-granting institutions. The analysis excluded the non-resident alien.


By running summarized statistics on this two groups of schools, we found that, statistically, they deserved to be compared in separate groups. As shown in the following 2 charts, almost all states have a graduation rate between 40 and 70% for public four year institutions and a graduation rate between 10 and 40% for public 2 year institutions.

Public 4 year institutions:


Public 2 year institutions:


Exceptions to the rule above are the District of Columbia, the state of Alaska and the state of South Dakota. The District of Columbia has a very low rate (12%) for public four year institutions. But our data also show that District of Columbia had very low public four year enrollment. Most of the enrollment at District of Columbia are in private not-for-profit institutions. The state of Alaska has hardly any other type of institutions except the four year public institutions and the overall four year public institution rate is at a low of 29%. As to the state of South Dakota, it simply have a very high graduation rate (53%) for its public two year institutions.

Ranking of the graduation rates for both the public 4 year institutions and public 2 year institutions are presented below:

For public four year institutions:

State	Cohort	Graduates	Graduation Rate	Rank	Previous Rank	Previous Rate
Iowa	9,212	6,392	69%	1	1	69%
Delaware	4,439	3,051	69%	2	6	64%
Virginia	27,133	18,559	68%	3	2	68%
New Jersey	15,487	10,295	66%	4	3	66%
California	66,751	43,504	65%	5	5	65%
New Hampshire	4,787	3,089	65%	6	4	65%
Washington	15,512	9,822	63%	7	8	61%
Vermont	3,178	1,997	63%	8	10	61%
Illinois	24,920	15,558	62%	9	12	60%
Maryland	14,499	9,047	62%	10	7	63%
Pennsylvania	42,627	26,169	61%	11	9	61%
Connecticut	8,705	5,247	60%	12	13	60%
Michigan	38,029	22,743	60%	13	14	59%
South Carolina	14,716	8,695	59%	14	11	60%
North Carolina	28,677	16,938	59%	15	15	59%
Wisconsin	25,129	14,608	58%	16	16	57%
Rhode Island	3,516	2,035	58%	17	19	56%
Arizona	14,693	8,378	57%	18	23	55%
Minnesota	16,284	9,264	57%	19	18	56%
Massachusetts	13,019	7,318	56%	20	22	55%
Nebraska	6,926	3,850	56%	21	17	56%
Missouri	17,252	9,468	55%	22	24	55%
Oregon	9,145	4,955	54%	23	25	53%
Kansas	11,757	6,364	54%	24	21	55%
US Total	913,162	487,749	53%			53%
Wyoming	1,487	790	53%	25	20	55%
Colorado	20,640	10,896	53%	26	26	53%
Ohio	44,291	22,679	51%	27	30	50%
Mississippi	7,943	3,973	50%	28	27	52%
Indiana	30,356	15,094	50%	29	28	52%
New York	45,066	21,962	49%	30	29	51%
North Dakota	5,939	2,829	48%	31	34	47%
Florida	60,984	28,921	47%	32	31	48%
Texas	59,791	28,288	47%	33	36	46%
Alabama	17,080	8,066	47%	34	33	47%
Maine	3,991	1,852	46%	35	32	47%
West Virginia	10,325	4,789	46%	36	39	44%
South Dakota	4,607	2,127	46%	37	41	44%
Tennessee	17,432	7,929	45%	38	35	47%
Hawaii	2,484	1,118	45%	39	43	42%
Kentucky	16,516	7,414	45%	40	38	45%
Georgia	29,841	13,367	45%	41	37	45%
Montana	5,111	2,214	43%	42	40	44%
Oklahoma	15,337	6,405	42%	43	42	42%
Utah	8,748	3,509	40%	44	44	41%
New Mexico	6,622	2,651	40%	45	45	40%
Idaho	4,823	1,885	39%	46	48	37%
Louisiana	23,834	9,087	38%	47	47	38%
Arkansas	11,629	4,358	37%	48	46	38%
Nevada	6,430	2,385	37%	49	49	37%
Alaska	2,110	607	29%	50	50	26%
District of Columbia	322	39	12%	51	51	11%

Compare with last year's graduation rate, state of Delaware made the biggest improvement of 5% and moved up 4 spots to land on the second place, just behind state of Iowa. Both the Delaware State University and University of Delaware improved by about 5%.


For public two year institutions :

State	Cohort	Graduates	Graduation Rate	Rank	Previous Rank	Previous Rate
South Dakota	2,045	1,082	53%	1	1	61%
North Dakota	1,071	414	39%	2	2	38%
Florida	12,294	4,681	38%	3	3	37%
Utah	3,715	1,324	36%	4	5	34%
Iowa	12,621	4,164	33%	5	7	32%
Wisconsin	10,827	3,383	31%	6	6	34%
Alaska	29	9	31%	7	4	36%
Nebraska	4,112	1,268	31%	8	10	28%
Montana	1,379	424	31%	9	19	24%
Kansas	9,526	2,888	30%	10	8	32%
Wyoming	2,322	695	30%	11	9	29%
Maine	2,237	593	27%	12	14	25%
New Hampshire	1,775	467	26%	13	16	25%
Minnesota	16,985	4,468	26%	14	11	27%
Mississippi	17,902	4,516	25%	15	15	25%
Georgia	17,397	4,383	25%	16	18	25%
Washington	9,342	2,343	25%	17	12	26%
California	95,026	23,776	25%	18	13	25%
Kentucky	8,086	1,936	24%	19	17	25%
Arkansas	6,549	1,455	22%	20	22	21%
Colorado	5,753	1,210	21%	21	20	23%
Missouri	13,054	2,686	21%	22	21	21%
US Total	628,788	127,884	20%			20%
North Carolina	19,051	3,872	20%	23	27	20%
Idaho	1,749	354	20%	24	24	21%
New York	50,827	9,942	20%	25	26	20%
Illinois	27,556	5,342	19%	26	25	20%
Alabama	14,531	2,783	19%	27	23	21%
Virginia	17,074	3,094	18%	28	28	18%
New Jersey	26,496	4,593	17%	29	31	16%
Oklahoma	7,457	1,290	17%	30	29	17%
Nevada	679	110	16%	31	45	11%
Arizona	8,133	1,315	16%	32	32	15%
Massachusetts	12,599	2,023	16%	33	30	16%
Vermont	192	30	16%	34	42	12%
Louisiana	6,941	1,083	16%	35	33	15%
Michigan	19,886	2,972	15%	36	35	15%
New Mexico	6,230	917	15%	37	38	13%
Pennsylvania	17,274	2,417	14%	38	34	15%
Oregon	7,057	966	14%	39	36	14%
Maryland	13,757	1,874	14%	40	39	13%
Hawaii	2,488	334	13%	41	41	13%
Ohio	16,412	2,183	13%	42	40	13%
Texas	50,928	6,615	13%	43	43	12%
Delaware	2,296	277	12%	44	48	10%
South Carolina	12,617	1,437	11%	45	44	11%
Tennessee	11,848	1,345	11%	46	46	11%
West Virginia	2,804	290	10%	47	37	14%
Connecticut	6,161	637	10%	48	47	10%
Rhode Island	2,251	208	9%	49	49	9%
Indiana	6,874	593	9%	50	50	8%
District of Columbia	0	0	0%	51	51	0%

Regarding to last year's data, state of Montana shows the biggest improvement in graduation rate for public two year institutions. State of Montana moved its rate up by about 7% and moved up 10 spots to earn the state number 9 spot in the ranking. Browsing through Montana's two year public schools, it revealed that almost all schools contribute to the overall improvement with Miles Community College leading the way with an improvement of about 22%, from 38 to 60%.

As we all know, reasons for variations in the rates are many. For example, the open access policy of school enrollment could easily affect the graduation rates. The posting and ranking of the state college graduation rates, nevertheless, provides the context for dialogs between citizen, policy makers and educators. Further research should help to reveal the favorable mechanism to improve college graduation rates.