April 2022

With the highest four-year graduation rate in the state, most of our students graduate on time, which means they can stop paying tuition and start working or attend graduate school. When a student takes longer to graduate, there are additional costs to factor in.

Looking across sectors, students at Minnesota Private Colleges are more likely to graduate in four years than students at the University of Minnesota or Minnesota State universities:

  • 68 percent at Minnesota Private Colleges (17 members of the Minnesota Private College Council)
  • 62 percent at University of Minnesota (all campuses)
  • 30 percent at Minnesota State universities

For those students who enrolled in fall 2014 and graduated from the institution they started, only 10 percent of Minnesota Private College graduates took more than four years to graduate, compared to 19 percent at the University of Minnesota and 40 percent at Minnesota State universities.