Undergraduate Degree Earners Report: First-Time Graduates and Graduates with Prior Awards

Differentiates between students earning their first postsecondary award and students earning additional undergraduate awards on top of ones earned in prior years. This report examines trends with these populations. The number of students earning their first undergraduate degree in 2017-18 (first-time graduates) was 2,254,846, an increase of 1.5 percent compared to 2016-17 (Figure 1). The number of graduates earning their second or third undergraduate credential (graduates with prior awards) grew by 4.4 percent to 722,547. The overall number of students who earned an undergraduate degree in 2017-18 was 2,977,393 a 2.2 percent increase from 2016-17.