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Of the 2.6 million college students who first enrolled in fall 2024, 85.8% returned to higher education in the spring for their second semester, according to data released Thursday by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. That’s in line with the fall-to-spring persistence rate of 85.7% seen among the previous cohort.
Of those first-time students, 77.1% returned for the following fall semester,up from 76.8% the prior year and the highest level seen in the last decade, according to Thursday’s data.
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The clearinghouse found that both Black and Hispanic students in the fall 2024 cohort returned to college at the highest rates observed in a decade. Among Hispanic students, 74.5% returned to higher education in fall 2025, up from 73% the year prior. And 70% of Black students did the same, up from 68.6%.
Native American and multiracial students also saw jumps, with their persistence rates rising to 65.7% and 78.9%, respectively. Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students had a persistence rate of 66.8%, a slight improvement from the previous cohort.
Despite the progress, there were still deep gaps in persistence rates among different racial and ethnic groups.
Asian students persisted at a rate of 90% from year to year, and White students returned at a rate of 82.1%. Both demographics have had persistence rates of at least 80% for the last decade.
“Persistence and retention are early indicators of whether students are staying connected to college after entry,” Matthew Holsapple, senior director of research at the clearinghouse’s research center, said in a statement Thursday. “This year’s results show steady first-year momentum overall, while some groups of students are seeing especially encouraging gains.”
Black and Hispanic students were also more likely to return to the college they started at in fall 2025 than at any other point in the past decade, the clearinghouse said.
Two-thirds of Hispanic students, 66.9%, returned to their original college in fall 2025,as did 59.6% of Black students. That’s compared to 65.5%and 58.6%, respectively, in fall 2024.