College Graduation rates by state

By Mariana Garcia-Serrato
Last updated almost 5 years ago
5 Questions
College graduation rates by state



The map above shows the average 6-year graduation rate among first-time, full-time undergrads who entered college seeking a 4-year degree among all in-state colleges mainly awarding bachelor's degrees, weighted by the size of potentially graduating cohort.
Source: US Department of Education College Scorecard - Data from the 2011-2012 academic year, six years before the 2017-2018 year, the most recent year for which data was available
1.

Which region of the U.S. has a higher college graduation rate?

MS-ETS1-1
2.

Arrange these states by graduation rate, beginning with the highest.

  1. Pennsylvania
  2. Iowa
  3. Texas
  4. California
  5. Washington
  6. Massachusetts
MS-ETS1-1
3.

Much like your grades, the averages are weighted by the size of the potentially graduating cohort, i.e they consider the number of undergrads that enrolled in a 4 year college seeking to graduate for the first time. How do you think this map would change if the averages were presented simply by state population?

4.

What do you wonder about what is going on in this map? Write one relevant question you have about the data or the information you obtained from the map, as well as where you would look for the answer or what data you'd need to answer your question.
("I would Google it" is not an appropriate response, while "I would use the following keywords: _______________ to try to find ______________" is OK).

5.

Write a >140 character Tweet that could accompany the sharing of the map.
This means, you would write a short sentence or two that describes one surprising thing you noticed from the graph and you accompany it with one or two relevant hashtags.
DO NOT start your tweet with the phrase "I noticed", AND #nohashtagnograde