Colleges With the Highest Graduation Rates
Starting a degree and finishing one are very different outcomes. This ranking sorts four-year colleges by the share of first-time, full-time students who complete within 150% of normal time, which is six years for a bachelor’s degree.
We ranked 1,540 four-year colleges with at least 500 undergraduates and a reported graduation rate, and show the top 50. The median is 56%, the highest is 97% and the school in 50th place is at 90%. Harvard University ranks first, and Massachusetts has the most entries with 9. The median net price across qualifying schools is $19,521.
Selective schools tend to dominate this list because they admit students who were already likely to finish. Look for schools that post high completion with high acceptance rates, and keep in mind that part-time students are not counted in the rate.
A high graduation rate is a strong sign, but it should be read together with cost, so look at the net price column and the best-value rankings before you decide.
How this list is built
A college appears here only if it meets every condition below.
- Colleges considered
- All 4-year colleges (public, private nonprofit and for-profit)
- Ranked by graduation rate, highest first. Ties are broken by larger undergraduate enrollment, then by name.
- Main campuses only, with at least 60% of core data fields reported
- At least 500 undergraduate students enrolled (fall 2024)
- A reported graduation rate value (schools without one are not ranked)
- Data period
- Graduation rate: first-time, full-time students who started in fall 2018 (4-year) or fall 2021 (2-year), finishing within 150% of normal time.
- Retention: first-time, full-time students from fall 2023 who returned the next fall.
- Net price: average for students receiving aid, academic year 2023-24.
- Earnings: median earnings four years after completing, measured in 2022 and 2023 for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 cohorts, in 2024 dollars.
- Acceptance rate: fall 2024 applicants admitted.
- Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, June 2026 release.
Showing the top 50 of 1,540 qualifying schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table.
| 1 | Harvard University Cambridge, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 97% | 98% | $19,066 | $134,794 | 4% |
| 2 | Princeton University Princeton, NJ Private nonprofit · 4-year | 97% | 98% | $6,128 | $108,590 | 5% |
| 3 | University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 97% | 98% | $28,699 | $124,586 | 5% |
| 4 | Duke University Durham, NC Private nonprofit · 4-year | 96% | 97% | $29,612 | $115,722 | 6% |
| 5 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 96% | 99% | $20,111 | $161,961 | 5% |
| 6 | Yale University New Haven, CT Private nonprofit · 4-year | 96% | 99% | $23,777 | $112,971 | 4% |
| 7 | University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN Private nonprofit · 4-year | 96% | 99% | $26,780 | $100,684 | 11% |
| 8 | Dartmouth College Hanover, NH Private nonprofit · 4-year | 96% | 98% | $29,519 | $111,883 | 5% |
| 9 | Brown University Providence, RI Private nonprofit · 4-year | 96% | 99% | $25,184 | $94,678 | 5% |
| 10 | Columbia University in the City of New York New York, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | 96% | 98% | $21,590 | $115,519 | 4% |
| 11 | Northwestern University Evanston, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | 96% | 98% | $29,167 | $109,275 | 8% |
| 12 | University of Virginia-Main Campus Charlottesville, VA Public · 4-year | 95% | 97% | $21,565 | $91,448 | 17% |
| 13 | Bowdoin College Brunswick, ME Private nonprofit · 4-year | 95% | 97% | $14,398 | $79,722 | 7% |
| 14 | University of Chicago Chicago, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | 95% | 99% | $14,860 | $127,757 | 4% |
| 15 | Cornell University Ithaca, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | 95% | 98% | $28,690 | $113,372 | 9% |
| 16 | Rice University Houston, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | 95% | 98% | $13,370 | $110,080 | 8% |
| 17 | Williams College Williamstown, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 95% | 97% | $17,716 | $80,487 | 8% |
| 18 | Georgetown University Washington, DC Private nonprofit · 4-year | 95% | 97% | $40,815 | $119,773 | 13% |
| 19 | Washington and Lee University Lexington, VA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 94% | 96% | $23,781 | $100,514 | 14% |
| 20 | Washington University in St Louis St. Louis, MO Private nonprofit · 4-year | 94% | 95% | $21,786 | $95,899 | 12% |
| 21 | Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD Private nonprofit · 4-year | 94% | 98% | $18,809 | $117,419 | 6% |
| 22 | California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 94% | 98% | $16,075 | $152,843 | 3% |
| 23 | Amherst College Amherst, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 94% | 97% | $23,367 | $79,243 | 9% |
| 24 | Tufts University Medford, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 93% | 96% | $39,998 | $97,474 | 11% |
| 25 | Claremont McKenna College Claremont, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 93% | 97% | $28,849 | $110,798 | 10% |
| 26 | Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 93% | 98% | $31,944 | $132,971 | 12% |
| 27 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI Public · 4-year | 93% | 98% | $13,138 | $96,159 | 16% |
| 28 | Pomona College Claremont, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 93% | 97% | $19,285 | $77,544 | 7% |
| 29 | Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Atlanta, GA Public · 4-year | 93% | 98% | $12,116 | $119,180 | 14% |
| 30 | Swarthmore College Swarthmore, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 93% | 96% | $23,149 | $65,618 | 7% |
| 31 | Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN Private nonprofit · 4-year | 93% | 96% | $15,846 | $101,204 | 6% |
| 32 | Barnard College New York, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | 93% | 97% | $28,800 | $72,527 | 9% |
| 33 | University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA Public · 4-year | 93% | 97% | $13,481 | $96,018 | 11% |
| 34 | Harvey Mudd College Claremont, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 93% | 97% | $35,924 | $137,100 | 13% |
| 35 | Babson College Wellesley, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 93% | 94% | $40,514 | $117,794 | 17% |
| 36 | University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA Public · 4-year · Hispanic-Serving | 93% | 97% | $12,548 | $77,677 | 9% |
| 37 | Stanford University Stanford, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 92% | 98% | $13,807 | $136,959 | 4% |
| 38 | Villanova University Villanova, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 92% | 95% | $43,756 | $104,228 | 27% |
| 39 | Wesleyan University Middletown, CT Private nonprofit · 4-year | 92% | 95% | $30,177 | $72,119 | 16% |
| 40 | Middlebury College Middlebury, VT Private nonprofit · 4-year | 92% | 94% | $31,483 | $71,188 | 11% |
| 41 | University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 92% | 96% | $32,740 | $95,739 | 10% |
| 42 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC Public · 4-year | 92% | 97% | $11,655 | $81,033 | 15% |
| 43 | Davidson College Davidson, NC Private nonprofit · 4-year | 91% | 95% | $17,379 | $72,718 | 13% |
| 44 | Emory University Atlanta, GA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 91% | 96% | $22,585 | $90,139 | 11% |
| 45 | Wellesley College Wellesley, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 91% | 96% | $25,496 | $72,449 | 14% |
| 46 | University of Florida Gainesville, FL Public · 4-year | 91% | 97% | $6,541 | $77,321 | 24% |
| 47 | Hamilton College Clinton, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | 91% | 95% | $28,985 | $79,130 | 14% |
| 48 | Boston College Chestnut Hill, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 91% | 96% | $41,704 | $96,145 | 16% |
| 49 | Colgate University Hamilton, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | 91% | 93% | $28,786 | $77,917 | 14% |
| 50 | Northeastern University Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | 90% | 97% | $30,915 | $101,903 | 5% |
States with schools on this list
Browse every college in these states.