Completing College: A State-Level View of Student Attainment Rates (Signature Report No. 6a)

In the state supplement to the National Student Clearinghouse's sixth Signature Report, a national study on college completion, the authors take a state-by-state look at the various pathways that students take to complete a college degree or certificate. The results are displayed in three sets of tables organized by institution type, showing each state's outcomes for students who started postsecondary education at four-year public institutions, two-year public institutions, and four-year private nonprofit institutions. Each set of tables provides state-level overviews of college completion outcomes. Further results are included, showing state-level six-year outcomes for students. Among the study's findings are: (1) Nationally, 13% of students who started at four-year public institutions completed at an institution other than the starting institution. In 18 states, students who started at four-year public institutions had a higher completion rate elsewhere, with Minnesota having the highest rate at 26 percent followed by Missouri and Nebraska each with 19 percent; (2) 3.6 percent of all students who started at a four-year public institution received their first degree/certificate at a two-year institution. The rate was over five percent in Arkansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin; (3) In seven states, more than 20 percent of the students who started in two-year public institutions completed at a four-year institution (with or without first receiving a credential at a two-year institution) within six years, with Kansas having the highest rate at 26 percent followed by Virginia at 23 percent; and (4) In 14 states, at least one in every five women who started at two-year public institutions completed at a four-year institution. Only in three states did at least 20 percent of men who started in a two-year public institution complete at a four-year institution. [This report is a supplement to "Completing College: A National View of Student Attainment Rates, Fall 2007 Cohort. (Signature Report No. 6)" (ED596257).]