Snapshot Report – First-Year Persistence and Retention

Discusses the most recent persistence and retention rates of first year students. A persistence rates is the percentage of students who return to college at any institution for their second year; a retention rate is the percentage of students who return to the same institution. Of all students who started college in fall 2016, 73.9 percent persisted at any U.S. institution in fall 2017, while 61.6 percent were retained at their starting institution.