The overall persistence rate for students who entered college in fall 2013 was 69.6—or one percentage point higher than that of students who entered college in fall 2012. Meanwhile the retention rate increased by 1.1 percentage points to 59.3 percent, the report found.
The persistence rate is the rate at which students return to any college during their second fall term, and the retention rate is the rate at which they return to the same college during their second fall term.
The NSC analysis found that increases in persistence rates for students who started college full-time were higher than for students who started college part-time—increases of 1.2 percentage points versus 0.2 percentage points, respectively.
While each institutional sector saw similar increases in persistence rates, the largest increase—0.8 percentage points—took place at two-year public institutions, taking the percentage rate at those schools up to 57.6 percent.
The snapshot also found that:
• The persistence rate for students who started at four-year public institutions rose 0.6 percentage points over the prior year, up to 79.3 percent, but still down 2.1 percentage points from 2009.
