U.S. Six-Year College Graduation Rate Stays at 61%

The College Investor Audio Show · Dec 11, 2025 · 5m

The latest national data on college completion shows a stark picture: the cohort of students who started college in fall 2019, only 61.1% earned a degree or certificate within six years. That figure has hovered between 61.1% and 61.4% since the 2016 cohort.

While the pattern of stability shows a trend - it's also a reminder that one-in-three college students never finish.

The slight 0.3% dip from the previous year was not driven by a surge in students leaving college altogether. Instead, more students remained enrolled at the six-year mark (9% of the cohort, up 0.4%) suggesting that a portion…