On average, the overall persistence rate is about 13 percentage points higher than the retention rate, meaning nearly one in eight starting students transfer by the following fall¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr2·q2
Currency · newest study 2017 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2022: baselines and conditions change
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? Across the included years, persistence exceeds retention by about 13 percentage points on average, so nearly one in eight students who start college in any fall term transfer to a different institution by the following fall. → First-Year Persistence and Retention 2017
Evidence¶
First-Year Persistence and Retention 2017¶
First-Year Persistence and Retention. (2017). National Student Clearinghouse Snapshot Report. https://nscresearchcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/NSC_SnapshotReport28_PersistenceRetention_Data_Tables.xlsx
q2 · i? · associational · r2
Descriptive comparison across entering cohorts in the Clearinghouse data. The report computes the average persistence-retention gap and states "nearly one in eight students who start college in any fall term, transfer to a different institution by the following fall."
"For the included years, the overall persistence rate is about 1 3 percentage points higher, on average, than the retention rate. Thus, nearly one in eight students who start college in any fall term, transfer to a different institution by the following fall."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- In four-year private institutions, white and Asian students had nearly identical persistence rates (89.8 and 89.6 percent), but Asian students were more likely to continue at their starting institution (82.5 percent)
- Sector persistence rates for fall 2015 entrants: 81.7 percent at four-year public, 84.9 percent at four-year private, 62.7 percent at two-year public, and 55.7 percent at four-year for-profit institutions — related
- In two-year public institutions, white students had a lower retention rate (50.2 percent) than Hispanic students (55.1 percent) because a higher share of white students transferred to four-year institutions — related
- Of students who started college in fall 2015, 73.4 percent persisted at any U.S. institution and 61.1 percent were retained at their starting institution in fall 2016 — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
persistence-exceeds-retention-one-in-eight-transfer |
title |
On average, the overall persistence rate is about 13 percentage points higher than the retention rate, meaning nearly one in eight starting students transfer by the following fall |
description |
On average, the overall persistence rate is about 13 percentage points higher than the retention rate, meaning nearly one in eight starting students transfer by the following fall |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2017 |
recheck_by |
2022 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-16 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — first-year-persistence-and-retention-2017 |
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