The 25 Public Colleges Where Students Graduate The Fastest

The schools that will help you avoid the wasted time and added expense of spending a fifth year (or more) in the classroom.

One casualty of the ongoing budget problems and overcrowding at public colleges is speed. The average time public college students take to earn what used to be called a “four-year degree” is currently about 4.6 years.

In fact, only one third of public college students earn their bachelor’s degree in four years, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

And that means the average in-state public college student is paying for an additional semester of tuition, room, board, and books—which is currently running about $12,000, according to College Board data.

Many private college students need more than four years to graduate as well, but on average, fully 53% of private college students earn their bachelors’ degree on time, 20 percentage points higher than the public college rate. (For the private colleges that graduate students the fastest, see our list of the top 50.)

One major cause of students’ slower progress at public colleges is underfunding. At some colleges, such as some low-cost California State University campuses, students complain they can’t get into the majors or classes they need to complete their degrees. At several CSU campuses, such as San Jose State University, students have almost no chance to finish on time.

But students also slow themselves down, research shows. Generally, schools that accept students with less-than-perfect high school records—such as open access public colleges—tend to have low four-year graduation rates. Many struggling students have to take remedial classes before they can handle college-level work, which adds a semester or two to their degree.

And students who change majors late in their college career may have to take additional requirements, which can force them to spend an extra semester or two at school. (You can read more about the simple strategies to help you graduate on time here.

These 25 public colleges have the best records of graduating students on time. They are ranked by four-year graduation rates in the table below, which also lists Money’s best college values ranking and our estimate of the average cost of a degree for an in-state student, after college scholarships and grants are subtracted.

COLLEGE	STATE	MONEY RANKING	% OF FRESHMEN WHO EARN A BACHELOR’S IN 4 YEARS	ESTIMATED AVERAGE NET COST OF A DEGREE FOR THE CLASS OF 2019
1. University of Virginia-Main Campus	VA	16	86%	$96,963
2. College of William and Mary	VA	60	83%	$99,106
3. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	NC	40	81%	$86,637
4. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	MI	22	76%	$97,359
5. University of California-Berkeley	CA	13	72%	$130,629
6. The College of New Jersey	NJ	53	72%	$131,357
7. St Mary’s College of Maryland	MD	319	71%	$123,480
8. University of California-Los Angeles	CA	31	69%	$130,477
9. SUNY at Binghamton	NY	162	69%	$102,165
10. University of California-Irvine	CA	32	68%	$126,546
11. University of California-Santa Barbara	CA	95	68%	$135,233
12. University of Connecticut	CT	120	68%	$105,084
13. University of Delaware	DE	66	68%	$101,911
14. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	IL	76	68%	$122,217
15. Miami University-Oxford	OH	144	68%	$128,987
16. University of Maryland-College Park	MD	68	66%	$102,069
17. SUNY College at Geneseo	NY	359	66%	$98,680
18. University of Mary Washington	VA	107	66%	$101,952
19. University of Florida	FL	28	65%	$89,572
20. Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus	PA	177	65%	$147,090
21. James Madison University	VA	53	65%	$101,193
22. University of Vermont	VT	300	65%	$96,549
23. University of New Hampshire-Main Campus	NH	261	64%	$121,657
24. University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus	PA	319	64%	$133,585
25. Citadel Military College of South Carolina	SC	114	62%	$98,671

Sources: U.S. Department of Education, Money calculations