Source: National Center For Higher Education Management Systems
Latest Data: 2017
Frequency: Annual

The data given here for "College Freshmen Retention Rates" refers to the percentage of all first-time college freshmen enrolled for the first time who return for their second year.  The data comes from the NCES, IPEDS Fall 2017 Enrollment Retention Rate File and was provided by the National Information Center for Higher Education Policymaking and Analysis.

According to the definitions given, "fall 2017 overall retention rates are calculated for each state using the state calculated full-time and part-time retention rates. The full-time and part-time retention rates are weighted by their respective fall 2016 first-time full-time and first-time part-time enrollments and averaged to obtain an overall retention rate."  

The same procedure used for 2017 was used for data from earlier years as well.