Home / Rankings / Highest first-year retention
Highest first-year retention
2,737 colleges in the U.S. with this figure reported (500+ students).
41University of Pennsylvania · PA · Private (nonprofit)98%42University of Puerto Rico-Aguadilla · PR · Public98%43Amherst College · MA · Private (nonprofit)97%44Barnard College · NY · Private (nonprofit)97%45Be'er Yaakov Talmudic Seminary · NY · Private (nonprofit)97%46Carnegie Mellon University · PA · Private (nonprofit)97%47Columbia University in the City of New York · NY · Private (nonprofit)97%48Georgetown University · DC · Private (nonprofit)97%49Harvey Mudd College · CA · Private (nonprofit)97%50Northwestern University · IL · Private (nonprofit)97%51Princeton University · NJ · Private (nonprofit)97%52Swarthmore College · PA · Private (nonprofit)97%53The Juilliard School · NY · Private (nonprofit)97%54Traviss Technical College · FL · Public97%55University of California-Berkeley · CA · Public97%56University of California-Los Angeles · CA · Public97%57University of Florida · FL · Public97%58University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill · NC · Public97%59University of Southern California · CA · Private (nonprofit)97%60University of Virginia-Main Campus · VA · Public97%61Williams College · MA · Private (nonprofit)97%62Yeshivath Viznitz · NY · Private (nonprofit)97%63Bucknell University · PA · Private (nonprofit)96%64Carleton College · MN · Private (nonprofit)96%65Claremont McKenna College · CA · Private (nonprofit)96%66Duke University · NC · Private (nonprofit)96%67Emory University · GA · Private (nonprofit)96%68Florida State University · FL · Public96%69Hamilton College · NY · Private (nonprofit)96%70Hillsdale College · MI · Private (nonprofit)96%71Minerva University · CA · Private (nonprofit)96%72New York University · NY · Private (nonprofit)96%73Pomona College · CA · Private (nonprofit)96%74Tennessee College of Applied Technology-Upper Cumberland · TN · Public96%75The University of Texas at Austin · TX · Public96%76Tufts University · MA · Private (nonprofit)96%77United States Air Force Academy · CO · Public96%78United States Military Academy · NY · Public96%79United States Naval Academy · MD · Public96%80University of Maryland-College Park · MD · Public96%
Source: U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS (latest survey year). Sorted only by highest first-year retention — this is not an overall quality ranking. Open-admission colleges do not report an admit rate and are not listed here.