Trenton, NJ - According to a recent report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, public colleges in New Jersey are among the highest graduation rates in the country. The report found more than 70 percent of students that start at public four-year schools will complete it within six years at a New Jersey institution, compared to the 62.85 percent national average.
While this does not sound too impressive, the state-by-state data ranks includes almost every public and private college in the country. New Jersey had a 73.3 percent completion rate, making it the sixth highest of the 46 states for which data was available.
The data track students across schools and states, which the organization says makes it the most complete measure available. Schools generally do not track students who transfer out, meaning those students get grouped together with those who leave college altogether — “noncomplete” ends up meaning both transfers and dropouts. The new data are based on students who first started college in fall 2008.
“It’s not a huge surprise to me. … We do quite well. I think that says positive things both about our institutions and our K-12 system, where we spend a particularly large amount of money,” said Paul R. Shelly, spokesman for the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities, the group that represents the state’s four-year schools other than Rutgers University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Here is the full report: http://nscresearchcenter.org/signaturereport8-statesupplement/
The data track students across schools and states, which the organization says makes it the most complete measure available. Schools generally do not track students who transfer out, meaning those students get grouped together with those who leave college altogether — “noncomplete” ends up meaning both transfers and dropouts. The new data are based on students who first started college in fall 2008.
“It’s not a huge surprise to me. … We do quite well. I think that says positive things both about our institutions and our K-12 system, where we spend a particularly large amount of money,” said Paul R. Shelly, spokesman for the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities, the group that represents the state’s four-year schools other than Rutgers University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Here is the full report: http://nscresearchcenter.org/signaturereport8-statesupplement/
