Lists and Rankings

Colleges with the Highest Retention Rates

When people go to these colleges, they never want to leave! The number is the percentage of freshmen returning for their sophomore year.

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• 1. Allen College (Waterloo, IA): 100%
• 1. Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia, PA): 100%
• 1. National University (La Jolla, CA): 100%
• 1. Peirce College (Philadelphia, PA): 100%
• 1. Sacred Heart Major Seminary (Detroit, MI): 100%
• 1. The New School for Public Engagement (New York, NY): 100%
• 2. Columbia University (New York, NY): 99%
• 2. Pomona College (Claremont, CA): 99%
• 2. University of Chicago (Chicago, IL): 99%
• 2. Yale University (New Haven, CT): 99%
• 3. Brown University (Providence, RI): 98%
• 3. California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA): 98%
• 3. Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH): 98%
• 3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA): 98%
• 3. Princeton University (Princeton, NJ): 98%
• 3. Stanford University (Stanford, CA): 98%
• 3. Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY): 98%
• 4. Amherst College (Amherst, MA): 97%
• 4. Bowdoin College (Brunswick, ME): 97%
• 4. Claremont McKenna College (Claremont, CA): 97%
• 4. Cornell University (Ithaca, NY): 97%
• 4. Duke University (Durham, NC): 97%
• 4. Harvard University (Cambridge, MA): 97%
• 4. Harvey Mudd College (Claremont, CA): 97%
• 4. Rice University (Houston, TX): 97%
• 4. Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA): 97%
• 4. United States Naval Academy (Annapolis, MD): 97%
• 4. University of California — Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA): 97%
• 4. University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA): 97%
• 4. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC): 97%
• 4. University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN): 97%
• 4. University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA): 97%
• 4. University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA): 97%
• 4. University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA): 97%
• 4. Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO): 97%
• 4. Williams College (Williamstown, MA): 97%
• 5. American University in Bulgaria (Blagoevgrad 2700, BU): 96%
• 5. Carleton College (Northfield, MN): 96%
• 5. Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA): 96%
• 5. Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO): 96%
• 5. Davidson College (Davidson, NC): 96%
• 5. Emory University (Atlanta, GA): 96%
• 5. Georgetown University (Washington, DC): 96%
• 5. Haverford College (Haverford, PA): 96%
• 5. Hillsdale College (Hillsdale, MI): 96%
• 5. Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD): 96%
• 5. The Cooper Union (New York, NY): 96%
• 5. Tufts University (Medford, MA): 96%
• 5. University of Florida (Gainesville, FL): 96%
• 5. University of Michigan — Ann Arbor (Ann Arbor, MI): 96%
• 5. Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN): 96%
• 6. Boston College (Chestnut Hill, MA): 95%
• 6. Colgate University (Hamilton, NY): 95%
• 6. College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, VA): 95%
• 6. College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA): 95%
• 6. Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA): 95%
• 6. Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago, IL): 95%
• 6. Jacobs University (Bremen, GE): 95%
• 6. Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA): 95%
• 6. Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT): 95%
• 6. Northeastern University (Boston, MA): 95%
• 6. Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI): 95%
• 6. Skidmore College (Saratoga Springs, NY): 95%
• 6. University of California, San Diego (La Jolla, CA): 95%
• 6. University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, MD): 95%
• 6. University of Rochester (Rochester, NY): 95%
• 6. Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA): 95%
• 6. Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL): 95%
• 6. Whitman College (Walla Walla, WA): 95%
• 6. Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, MA): 95%

Source: Wintergreen Orchard House.