50 private colleges with best, worst grad rates
(MoneyWatch) I recently listed the 50 public colleges and universities with the best and worst graduation rates.
Today I'm sharing the 50 private colleges and universities with the best and worst grad rates. Not surprisingly, some of the nation's most elite schools enjoy sterling six-year graduation rates, with Harvard University perched at the top of the heap. Eighteen of the institutions with superior grad rates are located on the East Coast and include all eight of the Ivy League members.
The private schools with the worst graduation rates are scattered across the country. The nonprofit, private institution with the lowest grad rate is Western Governors University, an online school geared primarily toward nontraditional students. The university was the brainchild of governors in Western states who wanted to help adult students who had left college before earning their degrees.
Private colleges and universities with the best graduation rates
- Harvard University, 97.4 percent
- Yale University, 96.3 percent
- University of Notre Dame 96 percent
- Princeton University, 95.7 percent
- Brown University, 95.6 percent
- University of Pennsylvania, 95.5 percent
- Dartmouth College, 95.4 percent
- Williams College, 95.1 percent
- Stanford University, 94.7 percent
- Wesleyan University, 94.4 percent
- Northwestern University, 94.4 percent
- Duke University, 94.3 percent
- Washington University - St. Louis, 94 percent
- College of the Holy Cross, 93.3 percent
- Vassar College, 93.3 percent
- University of Chicago, 92.9 percent
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 92.9 percent
- Cornell University, 92.8 percent
- Georgetown University, 92.5 percent
- Columbia University, 92.5 percent
- Bucknell University, 92.3 percent
- Rice University, 91.6 percent
- Tufts University, 91.1 percent
- Boston College, 91 percent
- Middlebury College, 91 percent
- Western Governors University, 6.5 percent
- Long Island University - Brooklyn, 17 percent
- Benedict College, 27.5 percent
- College of New Rochelle 30.1 percent
- Xavier University of Louisiana, 34 percent
- Barry University, 35.4 percent
- Florida Memorial University, 36.2 percent
- Bethune-Cookman University, 36.7 percent
- Hawaii Pacific University, 38.9 percent
- Columbia College Chicago, 40.5 percent
- Lynn University, 42.6 percent
- Clark Atlanta University, 43.1 percent
- Oklahoma Christian University, 43.9 percent
- Long Island University C.W. Post, 44.1 percent
- Lindenwood University, 44.9 percent
- Tuskegee University, 46.4 percent
- Curry College, 47.4 percent
- Campbell University, 47.8 percent
- Lee University, 48 percent
- Widener University, 48.1 percent
- New York Institute of Technology - Old Westbury, 48.2 percent
- Liberty University, 48.2 percent
- Franklin Pierce University, 49.1 percent
- University of Indianapolis, 49.8 percent
- Florida Southern College, 51.5 percent
Private colleges and universities with the worst graduation rates
An invaluable website
It's hardly a surprise that Western Governors University's grad rate looks nothing like Harvard's. What is important when researching schools is to compare grad rates of similar institutions. These rates vary significantly among peer institutions.
A great resource is the The Chronicle of Higher Education's microsite, College Completion, where I pulled the data above and which contains grad rates for 3,800 schools.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Jason Bache
