Only a third of students with financial need graduate from college in 4 years

Have fun exploring colleges and universities in the chart below. Look for schools that are green (meeting students’ financial needs) and up high (graduating a high percentage of students). If you hover over a dot, you’ll learn all about that school, You can filter the schools by state or to one of our special groupings. If you like tables better than graphs, you can swap views.

Selecting a school in the chart will take you to our school page where you can learn much more about the college or university. You can also use our school explorer page to find colleges and universities that meet your specific needs.

Explore graduation rates

Use the selection to restrict the schools to specific classifications and the US cartogram to filter by state.

Selecting a school will take you to the detailed school page.

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Charlotte Christian College and Theological Seminary

Texas Southern University

Carlos Albizu University - San Juan

City Vision University

The University of Texas of the Permian Basin

Vassar College

Blessing Rieman College of Nursing and Health Sciences

Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia

Thomas Aquinas College

Columbia University in the City of New York

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

SOURCES:

2019 College Scorecard

2018 IPEDS

2017 Opportunity Insights

2018 Peterson's

Methodology

Here are some details about the four measurements that are used for each school’s dot in the chart.

Ididio calculates a selectivity rating using the relative performance of each college or university’s students’ SAT/ACS scores and/or high school grade point averages along with the percentage of applicants who are accepted for admission. A selectivity rating of 0 corresponds to open admission institutions. The data that informs our choices is from IPEDs, Peterson’s Databases copyright 2018 Peterson’s All rights reserved, and Common Data Set. Schools to the left are not selective, and schools to the right have rigorous admissions standards.

The percentage of Pell recipients receiving any degree within 8 years is reported from IPED’s Outcomes section for the 2017-2018 academic year. This statistic includes all students who enrolled, inclusive of part-time and transfer students. We use the federal Pell grant status as a way to evaluate the financial need of each school’s student body. In reality, financial need criteria vary from school to school, and the Pell status provides us with a uniform way to assess need. Schools at the bottom of the graph should be avoided: these institutions are graduating a very small percentage of those who enroll. Those at the top have the best graduation rates. The dark shading indicates the middle 50% of graduation rates for colleges and universities offering bachelor’s degrees. The lightly-shaded regions show the rates for all but the top and bottom 10% of schools.

The percentage of Pell students is reported from IPED’s Financial Aid section for the 2017-2018 academic year and is also inclusive of part-time and transfer students. Small dots in the chart correspond to colleges and universities that admit very few students with need, and large dots correspond to schools who are educating large percentages of students with need.

The percentage of need met is data reported to Peterson’s by each college or university that chooses to participate and that is licensed to Ididio from Peterson’s Databases copyright 2018 Peterson’s All rights reserved. Each institution may define need and need met by its own metrics. You’ll notice that many colleges do not choose to participate in the Peterson’s survey and are shown in gray. If you qualify for financial aid, you will benefit from attending the schools corresponding to green dots.