2025 Complete College Georgia: Georgia State University

Too often at colleges and universities in the United States, the promise of education goes unfulfilled. Many students enroll, take on debt, and then leave without a degree. Estimates are that 40 million Americans have “some college, no credential”.  For too many students, loan debt lingers without the earning power that typically comes with a degree, further undermining their financial stability.  The disparities are stark. Individuals from the highest-income households are eight times more likely to earn a college degree than those from the lowest-income quartile.[1]  Nationally, white students graduate at rates more than 10 points higher than Hispanic students and are more than twice as likely as Black students to earn a 4-year college degree.[2]  Pell-eligible students fare no better: their national six-year graduation rate is just 39%,[3] roughly 20 points lower than the national average.[4]  These challenges deepened during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, making efforts to close attainment gaps even more difficult for colleges and universities nationwide.

These challenges are very familiar at Georgia State University. In fact, for many years, Georgia State reflected the nation’s broader shortcomings. Nearly two-thirds of its students are low-income and Pell-eligible, and almost 80 percent come from underserved communities. When the university began focusing intentionally on student success a little more than 15 years ago, the picture was stark: the 6-year graduation rate for bachelor’s students was just 32 percent. Key student populations were struggling even more—graduation rates were 22 percent for Hispanic students, 29 percent for African American students, and only 18 percent for African American men. Low-income, Pell-eligible students graduated at rates more than 10 percentage points lower than their non-Pell peers.