These are the colleges with the highest graduation rates in 2024

You won’t get a refund on tuition if you drop out of college. Failing to graduate often means being saddled with student loans, but without the salary premium a college degree unlocks.

This could leave you in a very precarious financial position.

As such, it’s wise to choose a college with a high graduation rate – this is evidence that the university is doing all it can to ensure students pass their classes and earn a degree.

Fortunately, some colleges are doing an exceptional job at making sure students graduate – across the socio-economic spectrum.

Read on to discover the American colleges with the highest graduation rates.

What is the average college graduation rate in the U.S.?

In 2021-2022, the weighted average college graduation rate was 66.8% (for 4-year colleges).

To get this number, we used IPEDS data; we looked at the graduation rates of 1,627 4-year institutions that mostly confer bachelor’s degrees (we excluded certain categories of narrowly specialized universities).

IPEDS is a primary source on educational outcome data compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Note that this is the total graduation rate – regardless of how long students took to finish their degree. All graduation rates cited in this article are total graduation rates.

It takes the average student 4.5 years to complete their bachelor’s degree.

It takes the average student 4.5 years to complete their bachelor’s degree.

Colleges with highest graduation rates

The colleges with the highest total graduation rate, according to IPEDS data, are listed below.

We also have a list of the colleges with the lowest graduation rates in our article about the worst colleges in the U.S.

Princeton University in New Jersey topped the study with the highest rate of graduation in the U.S., at 98.4%. At Princeton, 90% of students graduate in 4 years and go on to earn an average annual salary of $95,689.

Harvard University in Massachusetts follows closely in second place, with a graduation rate of 98.1% and 85% of attending students graduating in 4 years at the school. Students who graduate from Harvard earn an average yearly salary of $84,918.

Kenyon College in Ohio takes third spot, with 98% of its students graduating and 90% graduating in 4 years at the college. Kenyon College graduates earn an average salary of $64,000 per year.

Yale University in Connecticut is in fourth position; 97.5% of attending students graduate, with 87.9% of graduations taking place in 4 years. Former Yale alumni secure an average of $88,655 per year.

Next on the list is the University of Pennsylvania, which claims fifth place, with a graduation rate of 97.1% among students. In 4 years at the school, 86% of students graduate, with average future salaries of $103,246 a year.

The school with the sixth highest graduation rate is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with a rate of 96.9% and 87% of its students graduating in 4 years. Those previously enrolled at MIT have among the highest average earnings of any school in the US, securing an impressive annual salary of $111,222.

Following next, in seventh, is Stanford University in California, with a graduation rate of 96.5% and 73% of its students graduating in 4 years. Stanford University alumni earn a high average salary of $107,000.

Williams College in Massachusetts takes eighth place in the list, with a graduation rate of 96.4%. 88% graduate in 4 years and go on to earn $74,000 a year on average.

Brown University in Rhode Island follows in ninth position, with a total graduation rate of 96.1% where 84% of its students graduate in 4 years. For those who attended Brown, their average salary has been found to be $88,000.

Completing the top 10 US colleges with the highest graduation rates is Indiana’s University of Notre Dame, with a graduation rate of 96% where 91% of its students graduate in 4 years. Former University of Notre Dame alumni go on to earn an average of $93,000 a year.

Source: IPEDS, 2021-2022

Online colleges with highest graduation rates

Online colleges tend to have a lower graduation rate than traditional institutions. This may be because they have a higher share of non-traditional students who are balancing their studies with a full-time job.

Some online universities are doing a better job ensuring that students graduate.

We list the top 10 online colleges with the highest graduation rates below. These colleges all offer 100% online programs, although some may also have on-campus options.

The cheapest colleges with high graduation rates

You may have noticed from our first list that the colleges with the highest graduation rates are an elite bunch.

If you’re an ordinary student, “if you want to be sure of graduating, go to Princeton” might not be very helpful advice.

To bring the conversation back down to Earth, we looked at all the colleges with a graduation rate of at least 80% and sorted them by cheapest average annual net cost.

Average annual net cost refers to the total amount the average student pays for college each year – after financial aid. This includes costs like room, board, and textbooks.

This filters our many highly selective liberal arts colleges, although Princeton, with its extremely generous scholarships, remains on the list.

Also check out our list of the cheapest colleges in America.

Colleges with the best graduation rates for Pell students

Unfortunately, students from low-income households graduate college at lower rates than their peers.

This means many of the students who stand to benefit most from a college degree are instead being caught in a debt trap.

Below is a list of universities with the highest graduation rates among Pell grant recipients. Pell grants are government scholarships awarded to students from low-income families.

Low-income-serving colleges with the best graduation rates for Pell students

While the schools in the list above have high grade rates for Pell grant recipients, many do not admit many low-income students in the first place.

To find out which colleges are truly doing the best job at graduating low-income students, we turned to our Social Mobility Index (SMI).

Schools with a high SMI not only provide great outcomes for low-income students, they also accept an above-average share of students from low-income households.

We looked at colleges with an SMI in the top 10% of all institutions and ranked them by graduation rate for Pell students.

Final thoughts

It is interesting to see that all 8 institutions of the Ivy League are in the top 13 schools in the US with the highest rates of graduation. Typically, these elite schools have the lowest acceptance rate of applications, perhaps demonstrating the success of this process since nearly all of their respective students graduate, and usually in 4 years.

Furthermore, with the average national salary in the US being $63,795, it is clear that the alumni of all the institutions in this ranking are producing top earners in the country, since their average yearly earnings fall above this rate.

Graduation rates should be an important consideration as you apply for college. Enrolling somewhere where most college students drop out is a huge financial risk.

However, other factors are equally important when choosing a university: one example is a degree’s economic value. While some expensive colleges are “worth it” thanks to the high salaries they unlock, many affordable institutions provide equally good outcomes after graduation.

To help you find the best deal on your degree, we rank colleges by economic value – or ROI. Discover which colleges offer the best-value degrees in our rankings of national universities.