National Graduation Rate Ranking

National Graduation Rate Ranking

In a national comparison of 257 doctoral degree-granting institutions, the College of William and Mary’s freshmen six-year graduation rate ranks as the 16^th highest nationally and the 2^nd highest for a public institution. This performance continues when the freshmen cohort is subdivided by gender and racial/ethnic categories. The College ranks no lower than 24^th nationally and no less than 4^th for public institutions in any of the sub-cohort categories shown in the table below. In fact, the College ranks very high in several categories: 2^nd nationally and 1^st among public institutions for Hispanic students; and 10^th nationally and 1^st among public institutions for black male students.

The College’s overall (Total All Students) six-year graduation rate benefits from a 60/40 female to male gender ratio for freshmen in the cohorts. At William and Mary, as with most institutions nationally, female students tend to graduate in higher percentages than men. When the data for the two genders are combined for the College, the resulting graduation rate is benefited by the large proportion of females. Therefore, the College ranks 16^th nationally on the “total all students” rate, yet it ranks lower in each of the gender comparisons separately: 17^th for all men and 18^th for all women.

William and Mary Compared to All Doctoral Degree-Granting Institutions
National Ranking Based on Bachelor Degree Six-Year Graduation Rates
Combined Data for 2002 and 2003 Collection Years

Rank	Category	Adjusted Cohort*	Graduated	Graduation Rate (%)
16	Total All Students	2,655	2,399	90.36
17	Total Men	1,064	946	88.91
18	Total Women	1,591	1,453	91.33
17	White, Non-Hispanic Total	2,245	2,042	90.96
19	White, Non-Hispanic Men	895	799	89.27
18	White, Non-Hispanic Women	1,350	1,243	92.07
19	Black, Non-Hispanic Total	128	105	82.03
10	Black, Non-Hispanic Men	56	46	82.14
24	Black, Non-Hispanic Women	72	59	81.94
2	Hispanic Total	75	72	96.00
2	Hispanic Men	29	27	93.10
2	Hispanic Women	46	45	97.83
22	Asian/Pacific Islander Total	166	148	89.16
21	Asian/Pacific Islander Men	72	64	88.89
23	Asian/Pacific Islander Women	94	84	89.36

This comparison uses information from the Graduation Rate Survey (GRS) portion of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). The two most recent years of data available were used. The 2002 and 2003 collection years provide data for the 1996 and 1997 new freshmen cohorts respectively. Two year sums were produced for the number of students in the adjusted cohort and the number who graduated after six years. These numbers were produced for the 257 doctoral degree-granting institutions reporting six-year graduation data in the IPEDS-GRS. The adjusted cohort represents the initial number of fall semester first-time full-time freshmen enrolling at the institution less students excluded for valid reporting reasons: military service, church mission, or death of a student. The two years of data were combined to build larger adjusted cohort numbers for some comparisons and help stabilize annual variations in institution graduation rates. An institution average graduation rate (sum graduated divided by the adjusted cohort sum) was calculated for each institution and then institutions were ranked in descending order.

Starting with the 2002 collection year, the IPEDS-GRS provides sub-cohort detail data by gender and citizenship/racial/ethnic category. Most of the available sub-cohort categories are shown in the table above. The comparisons for Native American and international students were excluded due to small cohort numbers at William and Mary.

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