Finally! This is the longest I’ve waited to update my list of 50-50 Colleges. For reasons unknown, the Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS) only recently released the updated graduation rates although they have been showing up on College Navigator for some time now. I try not to take it personally. So while I’m not quite yet finished updating the DIY College Search Spreadsheet, I have generated the new listing of 50-50 Colleges.
The good news is that the number of colleges with 500 or more full-time undergraduates accepting at least 49% of students and graduating at least 49% of students has increased from 432 to 448. The bad news is that they account for less than a third of the over 1,500 colleges in the United States.
Of the 58 colleges that dropped from the list, 44 were because of lower graduation rates. For three schools, it’s simply that the data is missing. Two other schools, Wittenberg University and Randolph-Macon College, had such significant drops in their graduation rates that I suspect there is a data reporting error involved. Another 11 schools had lower acceptance rates including Reed, Trinity University, Georgia Tech, and Whitman.
A total of 75 institutions were added to the 50-50 Colleges list. In the case of 57 schools, it was because of improved graduation rates. Otterbein is back on the list after spending a year off because of what was probably a misreported graduation rate. Increased acceptance rates moved 16 institutions onto the list. Two schools are notable because of the large jump in the acceptance rates, Spelman from 38% to 54%, and Gordon from 41% to 88%. Two colleges that had been left off the list last time because of missing data, Wabash and St. Louis College of Pharmacy, are back on this year.
There are four states without any 50-50 colleges, Alaska, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Wyoming. Sixteen states had fewer 50-50 colleges while 19 gained schools. Eleven states, including the District of Columbia, saw no changes.
I have profiles for the majority of schools on my website. You can download a FREE copy of the listing of all 50-50 schools here. If you find the 50-50 College Listing and the many other free resources available on this website valuable, please make a donation so that I can continue to spend time updating and creating more resources.
