An 80% graduation rate is good after 6 years from the standpoint that the students actually graduated. It is not very good if it took most students that long to graduate. I would suggest that you take a look at the College Navigator website. Here is there link: http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/

For each college in which you have an interest you can look up on that site various information including the 4 and 6 year graduation rate. Obviously the ideal is to focus on those colleges that have a high 4 year graduation rate.

I got lot of clarity but I have seen that most of the university have a very high 6 year Graduation rate – as high as 80 – 90 %, does thus means that this much student take 6 years to graduate , not sure if this is considered good or bad ?

Thanks for help

Many US students also don’t get this so I am not surprised over your confusion. US colleges are meant to be finished in 4 years. However, many colleges, for various reasons, are not that concerned on whether a student finishes in 4 years or not. As a result, it takes most students 5 or 6 or sometimes more years to complete a 4 year college degree. Generally, the stronger academically the US college the better the 4 year graduation rate.

Because most colleges do not do well graduating students in 4 years the US government, who tracks this type of information, has established the 6 year graduation rate to make the colleges look better because most do a much better job graduating students in 6 years rather than 4. That is why most colleges advertise their 6 year graduation rate even though it is for a 4 year degree. Here is a link to a post I did on this topic some time ago. http://www.collegeadmissionspartners.com/college-admissions-counseling/how-long-to-graduate-college/

I hope that resolves your confusion.

I am from India, and my sat score is 2010. I am not getting this 6 years graduation rate thing? Here we get the degree in 3/4 years. But somehow this 6 years thing is making me go bonkers… Would appreciate if you can guide

Best

I am not clear on what your issue is with college selectivity. Let me try to address what I think you are asking.

First, college selectivity is not the same as college quality. As you point out, a college may have many applicants for very few places but that does not necessarily mean that it has better students than a college with fewer applicants. Students apply to colleges for various reasons, not all of which involves academics. For instance, if a college wins a major football bowl game, their applications will in most cases increase the following year.

Second, students should be looking for a college that is the best fit for their needs regardless of the selectivity of the college. For this purpose I mean selectivity in terms of how many students apply.

While it is true that the size of the school and number of applicants varies it is the relative percent of students that are accepted that people generally consider when they talk about selectivity. While UCLA gets more applications than Harvard, Harvard has far fewer spots available so their acceptance is far lower. That doesn’t make Harvard a better school, but it is more difficult to get into.

Usually, if a college gets more applications they will move the bar up for the grades and test scores that they want from an applicant. There are times that this is not the case but they tend to be specialty college. For example, Julliard generally has a lower acceptance rate than Harvard. The academics are not as high as Harvard but Julliard is looking for things outside the classroom that Harvard does not.

I am not aware of any source that compares both the selectivity from the standpoint of percent accepted as well as the academic strengths required.

I hope that answers some of your questions.

I am truly confused about how to accurately assess college selectivity. “Percent admitted” (such as what is reported on collegeboard.com) seems fairly meaningless since it is effected by the size of the school and number of applicants. Additionally, when comparing colleges that report similar g.p.a. & SAT criteria and breakdown for admitted students, “percent admitted” often widely varies. Is there a reliable guide that accurately judges colleges’ admission selectivity?