National Six-Year Completion Rate Reaches 62.2%

Of All Sectors, Community College Starters See Largest Increase in Completion Rates

According to new research by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, the national six-year completion rate for the 2015 cohort reached 62.2%, a 1.2 percentage point increase over the 2014 cohort. Students from all starting institution sectors saw increases in completion rates, with the largest increase of 1.5 percentage points among community colleges starters. This is the third consecutive year where national completion rates were higher than 60%.

“Students who started college six years ago have been completing degrees and certificates at higher rates than in recent years,” said Doug Shapiro, Executive Director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. “This broad measure of performance for higher education as a nationwide system, including transfers among two- and four-year schools of all kinds, shows long-term improvements for students and colleges alike, gains that took hold mostly in the pre-pandemic period.”

Other key findings in the Completing College: National and State Reports include:

• Six-year completion rates increased in 32 out of the 46 states with sufficient data. This is compared to the prior year when completion rates only increased in 12 out of 46 states. Figure 4 shows the change in the overall six-year, college completion rate by state.
• Completion rates increased for White, Black, and Latinx students this year, with the largest jump for Black students, showing an increase of 1.9 percentage points. Asian student completion rates remained virtually unchanged.
• Adult learners, students who were older than 24 at the time of entry, saw the largest one-year increases in the six-year completion rate. This small group of students, comprising 8.6% of the 2015 entering cohort, as shown in Figure 5, saw a 2.5 percentage point increase to 50.5 percent. Traditional college-age students continue to see higher completion rates than older students of both genders.

Newly added this year, longitudinal data dashboards offer detailed six-year completion outcomes over time and across starting institution sectors and student demographic characteristics and enrollment intensities. This makes national and state-level historical data accessible through interactive visualizations and analysis tools.

As the tenth in the Completing College series, this report updates the six-year, college completion rates nationally and by state, by tracking the enrollment and completion outcomes for the fall 2015 cohort of beginning college students through June 2021.

“Students who started college six years ago have been completing degrees and certificates at higher rates than in recent years.”

Doug Shapiro
Executive director, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center

Additional Resources:

• Read the report

• Contact the Research Center