When prospective college students begin looking for their future homes, one statistic they may want to evaluate is a school's freshman retention rate. This information—how many first-year students return to campus the following year—can be an important indicator in determining whether freshmen are satisfied with their experience at a particular school.
Among the 1,303 institutions that offered freshman retention rate data to U.S. News, the average retention rate is roughly 75 percent. The data provided in a 2010 survey of schools is a four-year average that covers freshmen entering college from fall 2005 through fall 2008 who returned to school the following fall. According to the data, 137 schools had a retention rate of at least 90 percent during that time period.
[See a full list of schools with the highest and lowest freshman retention rates.]
At Yale University, 99 percent of all first-year students returned to campus the following year, the highest percentage of any school in the nation. Among the schools with the highest freshman retention rates, all institutions are among the top 10 in the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings; nine schools place among the top 10 National Universities, and two are among the top 10 National Liberal Arts Colleges. There are more than 10 schools in the retention rate list due to ties.
Schools that were designated by U.S. News as Unranked were not considered for this report. U.S. News did not calculate a numerical ranking for Unranked programs because the program did not meet certain criteria that U.S. News requires to be numerically ranked.
Below is a table of the colleges with the highest freshman retention rates, based on data that covers freshmen entering college from fall 2005 through fall 2008:
| School name | Freshman retention rate (2005-08) | U.S. News rank & category |
|---|---|---|
| Yale University (CT) | 99% | 3, National Universities |
| Columbia University (NY) | 98.5% | 4, National Universities |
| Dartmouth College (NH) | 98% | 9, National Universities |
| Princeton University (NJ) | 98% | 2, National Universities |
| Stanford University (CA) | 98% | 5, National Universities |
| University of Chicago | 98% | 9, National Universities |
| University of Pennsylvania | 98% | 5, National Universities |
| Amherst College (MA) | 97.8% | 2, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| California Institute of Technology | 97.8% | 7, National Universities |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 97.8% | 7, National Universities |
| Pomona College (CA) | 97.8% | 6, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find retention rate data, complete rankings, and much more.
U.S. News surveyed more than 1,700 colleges and universities for our 2010 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported a myriad of data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News's data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News's rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools.
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Joseph of OR 4:10AM August 26, 2011
Aaron Andersen of IL 6:56PM August 22, 2011