Less than two-thirds of the freshmen at the nation's four-year colleges and universities earn bachelors' degrees within six years, and the graduation rates for low-income and minority students are under 30 percent at some institutions.[1] The leaders of many such campuses say they are doing the best they can, given the students they serve. But a recent study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research suggests otherwise, concluding that some institutions are much more successful than others in helping students with similar high school achievement profiles earn college degrees.
The April 2006 report tracked students who graduated from the Chicago school system in 1998 and 1999 and immediately enrolled in a four-year college or university. As Chart One shows, Chicago students were much more likely to graduate from some institutions than from others: 66 percent of those enrolled at Loyola University Chicago earned degrees, for example, while only 16 percent graduated from Chicago State...