Just the Facts—The Highest Freshman Retention Rates

According to US News & World Report, as many as one in three freshmen don’t make it back for sophomore year. Although money problems tend to dominate, the reasons a student may choose not to return range from loneliness to academic struggles.

While colleges are quick to explain away low freshman retention by blaming federal methodology, it’s still a good metric to include in your college search. If it looks too low, don’t hesitate to ask what the college is doing to improve.

Locally, Johns Hopkins (97%), the University of Virginia (97%), Georgetown (96%), William & Mary (95%), University of Maryland (93%), George Washington University (91%), and Virginia Tech (91%) are consistently among the schools with high freshman retention.

Thanks to a sneak preview from USNWR of this year’s Common Data Set results, here are the colleges with the highest freshman retention rates:

1. Yale University (99%)


2. Columbia University (98%)


3. Dartmouth College (98%)


4. Princeton University (98%)


5. Stanford University (98%)


6. University of Chicago (98%)


7. University of Pennsylvania (97%)


8. CalTech (98%)


9. MIT (98%)


10. University of Notre Dame (98%)


11. Brown University (97%)


12. Harvard University (97%)


13. Johns Hopkins University (97%)


14. Rice University (97%)


15. UCLA (97%)


16. University of Virginia (97%)


17. Duke University (97%)


18. Northwestern University (97%)


19. Washington University in St. Louis (97%)