Comparing the Graduation Rates at Flagship State Universities

America’s large state universities educate three fourths of all African-American college students in the United States. JBHE calculations show that by a large margin the University of Virginia has the highest black student graduation rate of any state-chartered institution in the nation. The black graduation rate at the university is 87 percent.

The next-highest black student college completion rate at a flagship state university is at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There, and at the State University of New York at Binghamton, the black student graduation rate is 72 percent. The University of California at Berkeley has a black student graduation rate of 70 percent.

Twelve other states have flagship universities that post a black student graduation rate of 60 percent or higher. These are the state universities in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Hampshire, Maryland, Florida, Michigan, Connecticut, Vermont, Georgia, Texas, Illinois, and New Jersey.

Five states and the District of Columbia have flagship state-chartered universities at which the black student graduation rate is 35 percent or below. In addition to the University of the District of Columbia, the states that have flagship universities with a black student graduation rate below 36 percent are Alaska, South Dakota, Utah, New Mexico, and Nevada.

Copyright © 2007. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.