The Nationwide Gender Gap in College Graduation Rates

The U.S. Department of Education recently published a new report that included the graduation rates of students who entered college in 2008 and earned their degrees within six years. For all students who enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs at four-year institutions in 2008, 62.3 percent of women earned their degree by 2014. For men who entered bachelor’s degree programs at four-year institutions in 2008, 56.5 percent had earned their degree within six years. Thus, there was a 5.8 percentage point gap in favor of women in graduation rates for students who entered college in 2008.

The gender gap in graduation rates was 6.0 percentage points at public colleges and universities and 5.5 percentage points at private, nonprofit educational institutions. At private, for-profit educational institutions, the graduation rate for women was 25.4 percent. This was slightly lower than the graduation rate for men at these institutions.

The gender graduation rate gap varied by race but the graduation rate for women was higher for all racial and ethnic groups. For Black and African American students there was a 9.5 percentage point gap in favor of women. This was the highest gender gap for any racial or ethnic group. Hispanic women graduated at a rate that was more than 8 percentage points higher than the rate for Hispanic men. Native Hawaiian men and women graduated at very similar rates with only a 0.2 percentage point edge for women. The next smallest gender gap of 4.2 percentage points was for American Indians.

For students who entered two-year colleges in 2011, 32.9 percent of women earned an associate’s degree within three years. For men, the graduation rate was 28.1 percent.