Change Indicator

College graduation, 1999—2015 in Maine

College graduation, 1999—2015

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Why This Indicator Matters

Graduating college with a degree will help people gain access to higher paying jobs and a person with a credential is less likely to be unemployed. Maine businesses need an educated work force to hire qualified employees. Having a degree is more important than it was thirty years ago in Maine, because of the loss of manufacturing jobs and other employment in industries such as logging.

What the data shows
Maine is above the national rates for college completion for students at 4-year institutions with 56.3% graduating within 6 years in Maine in 2015, compared to 53.8% in the US. For 2-year institutions, Maine is below the national average with a rate of completion within 3 years of 25.2% for a 2-year college, compared to a national rate of 29.1%.
For more national information, see
Higheredinfo.org

Looking at trends in Maine, in the last 3 years from 2012-2015 there has been an increase in the percent graduation within 6 years with a 4-year degree.  2014 was the year with the highest number of graduates at 4,548. For the 2-year schools, although the number of students starting at 2 year colleges has been increasing, there was a steady decline from 2000 to 2009 in the graduation rates within 3 years.From 2009 to 2015, Maine has been below the national average in graduation rates for 2-year colleges. Most recently, the rate has increased in 2014 & 2015 compared to 2013.
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Definition and Source

PROVIDER

Definition

This measure shows the number and percent of Maine young adults who graduate from two year and four year public and private institutions. College graduation refers to the number and percent of Maine High School students who graduated within 150% of the time customary, i.e. 3 years for a two-year Associates degree and 6 years for a four-year Bachelor's degree.  The year refers to the year graduating from college, not the year graduating from high school.

Data Source

Higher Ed Info
Select custom reports, not "state profiles" in order to get the number in the cohorts.

Notes

Year refers to year graduating from college, not year graduating from high school.
It includes students who graduate from high school during the year 6 years prior to see if they have subsequently graduated from a four-year college.  It includes students who graduate from high school during the year 3 years prior to see if they have subsequently graduated from a two-year college.
So, for the four-year bachelors the percent who graduated in 2015 refers to the cohorts of students who graduated from high school in 2009. For the students graduating from a two year school in 2015, these are the high school graduates of 2012.

Data available 2009 -2015, Data uploaded June 2018.

Last Updated

June 2018