• The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a reputation for producing famous tech dropouts.
• But in reality, 99% of first-year students return — the highest rate in Massachusetts.
• Here is the college with the highest first-year retention rate in every state.

Getting a student to choose a college is one thing. Getting them to come back for another year is just as important.

Ranging from Ivy League universities to military academies, Business Insider calculated the college with the highest retention rate in each state.

The first-year retention rate shows the proportion of students who return to their studies in the fall for their sophomore year. It’s a metric colleges care about because it can indicate higher student satisfaction and strong academic support.

Business Insider compiled each state’s winner using provisional fall 2024 data from the Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).

The retention rate covers full-time, first-time bachelor-seeking students who entered in fall 2023 and measures whether they returned for fall 2024.

The cohort size is adjusted to account for any permitted exclusions, such as a student’s death.

Business Insider also limited the data to degree-granting institutions only and set a minimum cohort size of 100 to avoid very small cohorts inflating retention rates.

Because the data is provisional, the figures could be revised and should not be considered final counts.

Here are the colleges with the highest retention rate in every state.

ALABAMA: Auburn University

Adjusted first-year cohort: 5,915

Retention rate: 95%

ALASKA: University of Alaska Fairbanks

Adjusted first-year cohort: 451

Retention rate: 74%

ARIZONA: Arizona State University (Campus Immersion)

Adjusted first-year cohort: 13,867

Retention rate: 87%

ARKANSAS: University of Arkansas

Adjusted first-year cohort: 6,289

Retention rate: 86%

CALIFORNIA: Claremont McKenna College

Adjusted first-year cohort: 321

Retention rate: 98%

COLORADO: United States Air Force Academy

Adjusted first-year cohort: 1,101

Retention rate: 97%

CONNECTICUT: United States Coast Guard Academy

Adjusted first-year cohort: 287

Retention rate: 99%

DELAWARE: University of Delaware

Adjusted first-year cohort: 4,190

Retention rate: 92%

FLORIDA: University of Florida

Adjusted first-year cohort: 6,726

Retention rate: 98%

GEORGIA: Georgia Institute of Technology (Main Campus)

Adjusted first-year cohort: 3,751

Retention rate: 98%

HAWAII: University of Hawaii at Mānoa

Adjusted first-year cohort: 2,868

Retention rate: 81%

IDAHO: The College of Idaho

Adjusted first-year cohort: 292

Retention rate: 82%

ILLINOIS: University of Chicago

Adjusted first-year cohort: 1,618

Retention rate: 99%

INDIANA: University of Notre Dame

Adjusted first-year cohort: 2,074

Retention rate: 99%

IOWA: Grinnell College

Adjusted first-year cohort: 457

Retention rate: 93%

KANSAS: University of Kansas

Adjusted first-year cohort: 5,159

Retention rate: 86%

KENTUCKY: Centre College

Adjusted first-year cohort: 360

Retention rate: 88%

LOUISIANA: Tulane University of Louisiana

Adjusted first-year cohort: 1,866

Retention rate: 93%

MAINE: Bowdoin College

Adjusted first-year cohort: 504

Retention rate: 97%

MARYLAND: Johns Hopkins University

Adjusted first-year cohort: 1,413

Retention rate: 98%

MASSACHUSETTS: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Adjusted first-year cohort: 1,090

Retention rate: 99%

MICHIGAN: Hillsdale College

Adjusted first-year cohort: 349

Retention rate: 97%

MINNESOTA: Carleton College

Adjusted first-year cohort: 538

Retention rate: 96%

MISSISSIPPI: University of Mississippi

Adjusted first-year cohort: 5,185

Retention rate: 87%

MISSOURI: Washington University in St. Louis

Adjusted first-year cohort: 1,823

Retention rate: 95%

MONTANA: Carroll College

Adjusted first-year cohort: 273

Retention rate: 82%

NEBRASKA: Creighton University

Adjusted first-year cohort: 1,043

Retention rate: 94%

NEVADA: University of Nevada-Reno

Adjusted first-year cohort: 3,388

Retention rate: 80%

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Dartmouth College

Adjusted first-year cohort: 1,206

Retention rate: 98%

NEW JERSEY: Princeton University

Adjusted first-year cohort: 1,332

Retention rate: 98%

NEW MEXICO: New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

Adjusted first-year cohort: 222

Retention rate: 77%

NEW YORK: Columbia University in the City of New York

Adjusted first-year cohort: 1,498

Retention rate: 98%

NORTH CAROLINA: Duke University

Adjusted first-year cohort: 1,741

Retention rate: 98%

NORTH DAKOTA: University of Mary

Adjusted first-year cohort: 559

Retention rate: 84%

OHIO: Ohio State University (Main Campus)

Adjusted first-year cohort: 8,028

Retention rate: 94%

OKLAHOMA: University of Tulsa

Adjusted first-year cohort: 558

Retention rate: 92%

OREGON: Lewis & Clark College

Adjusted first-year cohort: 536

Retention rate: 89%

PENNSYLVANIA: University of Pennsylvania

Adjusted first-year cohort: 2,415

Retention rate: 99%

RHODE ISLAND: Brown University

Adjusted first-year cohort: 1,692

Retention rate: 99%

SOUTH CAROLINA: Clemson University

Adjusted first-year cohort: 4,488

Retention rate: 93%

SOUTH DAKOTA: Augustana University

Adjusted first-year cohort: 454

Retention rate: 86%

TENNESSEE: Vanderbilt University

Adjusted first-year cohort: 1,612

Retention rate: 96%

TEXAS: Rice University

Adjusted first-year cohort: 1,118

Retention rate: 97%

UTAH: Brigham Young University

Adjusted first-year cohort: 3,367

Retention rate: 91%

VERMONT: Middlebury College

Adjusted first-year cohort: 615

Retention rate: 94%

VIRGINIA: University of Virginia (Main Campus)

Adjusted first-year cohort: 3,965

Retention rate: 98%

WASHINGTON: University of Washington (Seattle campus)

Adjusted first-year cohort: 6,928

Retention rate: 95%

WEST VIRGINIA: West Virginia University

Adjusted first-year cohort: 4,370

Retention rate: 83%

WISCONSIN: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Adjusted first-year cohort: 7,937

Retention rate: 96%

WYOMING: University of Wyoming

Adjusted first-year cohort: 1,422

Retention rate: 80%

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said a little drama may grease the gears for talks with Elon Musk.
• “I think once in a while you’ve got to punch a bully back in the nose,” Altman told Vanity Fair.
• Altman said that Musk “only respects people” who take such an approach.

Sam Altman says you need to accept some level of drama if you want him and Elon Musk to work together.

“I think once in a while you’ve got to punch a bully back in the nose,” Altman told Vanity Fair during a wide-ranging interview. “And I also think Elon, like many bullies, only respects people who do.”

Altman and Musk had a famous falling-out that has since been recounted and is at the center of multiple legal battles. Their drama, which is far from the only simmering beef in the AI world, is now also the backdrop to efforts among the world’s largest AI companies to reach a consensus on how to steer their technology.

The OpenAI CEO said he would work with Musk, who has taken to calling his one-time ally “Scam Altman,” as the industry grapples with renewed concerns over AI safety.

“If you want me to be able to work with him, maybe you should be happy I hit back once in a while, but I will work with Elon, of course,” he said.

For his part, Altman said that he “won’t call myself a saint.” At the same time, he doesn’t view himself as the biggest problem.

“I’m not sure if I’m the one that you’re supposed to come after between Elon and me,” he said.

In July, Musk lashed out at Altman when another account said that he had “warned the world about Scam Altman.”

Musk quoted that post and added, “He takes scamming to a whole new level.”

In response, Altman took a shot at Musk’s advocacy for orbital data centers, something the OpenAI CEO has repeatedly expressed skepticism about.

“Homeboy you’re the one selling public market investors on short-term space datacenters,” Altman wrote.

Despite the drama, AI companies have taken more steps toward cooperation. Leaders of OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceXAI, Google, and Nvidia signed a White House-driven agreement in which the companies agreed to some self-imposed safety measures.

Altman told Politico’s Decoded Podcast that there’s no single group chat, but officials at frontier labs have multiple avenues to continue talking.

“There’s no like big WhatsApp that everybody’s in,” Altman said, “but there’s like lots of, you know, people are running into each other at the same conference. There’s calls, occasional meetings, stuff like that.”

• We sold our house in Connecticut and got rid of most of our belongings before moving abroad.
• Starting over in Spain brought plenty of stress and uncertainty.
• Depending on each other through it has ultimately strengthened our relationship.

One year ago, my husband left his 18-year teaching career behind, we sold our house, got rid of 95% of our belongings, and moved our family from Connecticut to Madrid.

These days, we live in a small flat with our 7 and 10-year-old boys. We don’t own a car. We’re learning Spanish one day at a time.

On paper, that much upheaval could’ve broken us. Instead, it’s brought us closer than ever.

We were coexisting, not connecting

Back in the US, my husband Jeff and I were coexisting more than connecting. Most conversations revolved around logistics: who was taking which kid to which activity, what meeting we needed to attend, and what to make for dinner.

By the time the boys were in bed, we were too spent to connect meaningfully. We’d sit beside one another, exhausted, on our phones or trying to watch a movie we never finished because one of us always fell asleep.

I never imagined that would be our marriage. Yet, there we were.

Moving to Spain made us reevaluate things

Here in Spain, we’re still busy. Arguably busier.

We spend about three hours a day getting the kids to and from school via train and bus. But we’re also spending far more time together than before — and it’s given us more opportunities to connect beyond logistics.

Part of what’s driven this connection, too, is watching the locals go about their day around us.

“Busy” doesn’t mean the same thing here as it does in the US. It’s not a reason to delay the connection. People stop for each other mid-errand, midday, without apologizing. They make the time.

We started doing the same.

Stopping for an unplanned coffee or a caña. Exploring a new neighborhood hand-in-hand just because. Taking a few extra minutes for us instead of rushing on to the to-do. It’s made more of a difference than I expected.

You don’t have to move abroad to do this, of course. You just have to decide that the list can wait.

Going through the unknown together

It’s just the four of us now. We need each other in a way we didn’t before (and that’s not automatically a good thing). Being each other’s only support can bring out the best in a marriage, or the worst.

This past year tested us more than once. Jeff spent months in a 600-hour language course, while simultaneously trying to find work and switch off his student visa before it expired.

Between the exhaustion of full-time language study and the pressure of a ticking clock, it would have been easy for that stress to become tension between us. And some days, it did. Navigating new rules, a new language, and a hundred small unknowns daily—it’s hard. I won’t pretend it’s not.

But we kept showing up for each other anyway, and we came out stronger.

A weekly ritual that’s helped

One thing that’s anchored us through this new chapter is a practice we started years ago in the US.

After our second son was born, I created a marriage meeting journal. We’d answer 10 questions together and document the answers.

Questions like:

What’s something your partner did last week that made your life easier?

What support do you need this week? Are there any goals or commitments you could use your partner’s help with?

Is there something in our relationship or home that needs attention?

How will we connect as a couple this week?

It’s nothing fancy, but it’s an hour that keeps us sailing in the same direction — even more important now that we’re living abroad.

We still do it most Sunday mornings. And while it was technically my idea, Jeff loves it as much as I do. If we let it slide, he points it out.

You don’t need to do it weekly or answer all 10. You could start tonight, with one question.

After the move, we also started something new: short day-dates.

After Jeff’s last class of the week, we’d meet up for a drink, lunch, and a rose garden stroll. Nothing grand, and sometimes, it costs nothing. It was another block of intentional time to connect.

I don’t know what that will look like this year now that he’s secured a teaching position, but I know we’ll find some version of it — because it matters.

The part we didn’t see coming

If you’d asked me before we moved what I thought would change, I’d have said: the language, the culture, the community we’d build, the places we’d explore. I never would have guessed how much closer we’ve become.

And it didn’t stop with our marriage.

Evening strolls through the plaza with just a ball or hacky sack to pass among the four of us. Morning hikes and long talks with my oldest. Word searches and laughing with my 7-year-old on the ride home from school. We didn’t plan for any of that.

It might be the best part of the whole move.

• Former FTC chair Lina Khan doesn’t believe AI companies can effectively self-regulate.
• She referenced Big Tech’s attempt with social media, calling it “a proven failure.”
• The Trump administration isn’t keen on implementing federal-level guardrails.

Lina Khan has some advice for AI companies attempting to self-regulate the advancing tech.

The former Federal Trade Commission chair said doing so would be a fool’s errand during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

“We’ve seen that self-regulation efforts by Big Tech have been a proven failure,” Khan said on Sunday. “We need to remember what happened a decade ago.”

She referenced Big Tech companies that tried to self-regulate in the early days of social media.

“We’ve seen just innumerable harms come from the unchecked nomination of these Big Tech companies, and so now, as we face new horizons with these advanced AI systems, it would be an enormous mistake to repeat that playbook,” Khan said.

Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, major players in the tech industry have become caught in a global race to develop their own systems. Companies like Microsoft, Google, and Meta have invested heavily in their products in hopes of dominating the global market. However, the speed of AI advancement has prompted calls from politicians, advocates, and even some tech leaders for guardrails.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on his industry peers to pace the development of frontier AI systems last month. In a blog post, he said the “most effective” method would involve regulation that targets US frontier AI companies. His essay drew support from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI CEO Elon Musk.

The Trump administration has avoided implementing regulations on the AI industry. Last week, President Donald Trump said tech leaders had signed an AI safety agreement to regulate themselves.

Although overarching regulation is still up in the air, Khan said there are already laws in place to address issues in the AI industry.

“I think one thing that’s especially odd about this moment is that you’re hearing from these executives that they are effectively developing malfunctioning products, AI systems that are engaging in repeated hacks of the servers of other companies, of the servers of other governments, and yet that they are somehow helpless as to do anything serious about it,” she said.

A spattering of cybersecurity incidents has cast a harsh glare on AI companies. OpenAI agents hacked another AI company, Hugging Face, in July. In September, an AI startup’s research team used Claude to hack into OpenAI’s codebase, and The Wall Street Journal reported that Google’s Gemini had hacked three companies in the spring. Recently, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said an OpenAI agent hacked into a government website this summer.

In a blog post, OpenAI said it should have shared the preliminary findings with Australia’s government sooner and kept agencies abreast of developments.

During her interview, Khan told “This Week” that the idea that adopting new technologies exempts companies from current laws is “totally laughable.”

“I think when you have a pattern of these agents engaging in this type of dangerous behavior, and you still have these companies developing in the same way, not putting the full guardrails in place, I think that starts to raise very serious questions,” Khan said.

• One of my favorite escapes from Los Angeles is the rustic, uncrowded mountain town of Idyllwild.
• The tiny community is isolated but offers plenty to see and do year-round.
• It offers a laid-back getaway where you can be immersed in nature and meet a local dog celebrity.

One of the best things about living in Santa Monica is having the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other.

Although there are plenty of mountainous spots nearby to choose from for a getaway, my husband and I keep going back to the small town of Idyllwild.

We’ve been there at least 20 times over the past decade, and it remains one of our favorite places to visit.

Idyllwild is about a two-hour drive east of Los Angeles, and the winding road up into the mountains feels like part of the adventure as the urban sprawl below shrinks in the distance.

Before you know it, you’re surrounded by towering pines and crisp alpine air in a town that feels much farther from LA than it is.

With a population of around 4,000 people and an elevation of about 5,300 feet (just over a mile high), Idyllwild feels like a real escape from the big city while still being close enough for a quick overnight or an extended stay.

The town feels wonderfully old-school

Downtown Idyllwild is small enough to explore on foot, with woodsy architecture, independent shops and restaurants, and easy parking all around.

At night, the town cab get very quiet except for the sounds of wildlife that add to the feeling of being close to nature.

Over the years, we’ve stayed in little local lodges, inns, B&Bs, family-owned cabins, and whole-home rentals. Most of them have been within walking distance of downtown.

Even though some spots have come and gone, it still feels like the same charming village, especially since you won’t find major chain businesses, fast-food joints, or strip malls.

The town’s local grocery stores are also independent, so if you need a big-box store, you’ll have to drive back down the mountain.

There’s enough to do without feeling like you need an itinerary

Idyllwild is isolated, but it isn’t boring. I’ve enjoyed arts and crafts, gardening lectures, wine tastings, holiday festivals, and outdoor concerts.

Naturally, there are lots of good hiking trails, but my husband and I tend to stay in town, taking easy strolls, browsing the shops, eating at restaurants, and relaxing among the pines.

It’s fun chatting with locals, from store owners and lodge managers to bikers who pass through town.

There’s also a historic movie theater, the Idyllwild Nature Center with its museum and community events, and the renowned Idyllwild Arts Academy boarding school, all of which contribute to the town’s cultural and creative character.

Since there’s always something happening, we usually arrive without any set plans. That said, we’ve often taken the two-hour drive just to hear our friend Keith McCabe — who we met 10 years ago in Idyllwild — play acoustic guitar at one of the local restaurants or bars.

I must also mention that the town’s mayor is a dog

Yes, it’s true. Idyllwild is an unincorporated community with no official local government, but in 2012, residents elected a canine as their mayor.

Mayor Max is an adorable golden retriever (the current Mayor Max is actually the third generation to hold the title), and I’ve had the supreme pleasure of meeting all three over the years.

Mayor Max’s duties include attending meet-and-greets, taking photos, spreading joy and goodwill, and promoting the town.

You can catch him on certain days of the week in the back of his caretaker’s pickup truck in the middle of town (or get in touch with his people via email to arrange a visit).

Every season offers a fresh way to enjoy the town

Over the years, we’ve experienced snow, holiday festivals, warm-weather trips, and plenty of dry seasons. Being that this is Southern California, Idyllwild has had more than its fair share of droughts, fires, and occasional deluges.

Strawberry Creek, which runs through the town, isn’t always flowing and can look dramatically different depending on rain and snowmelt.

But no matter what time of year we go, there’s something invigorating about being up there so close to nature, surrounded by those mountain peaks and soaking in the nostalgic simplicity of it all.

It’s a great place to make memories with the people you love

I’ve made so many great memories in this small mountain town with friends and family, including my grandparents, who recently passed.

My husband and I even have friends who decided to get married there after we introduced them to Idyllwild — and he officiated the wedding!

After all these years, Idyllwild remains one of our go-to places when we want an easy escape from the hustle and bustle of city life. It harks back to a simpler time, allowing us to be surrounded by nature and enjoy a slower pace for a few days.

• I left my home in Colorado more than two decades ago and eventually built a life in London.
• When I turned 40, I started to think more and more about the distance between me and my dads.
• Soon after, I moved home and a year later, I’m still happy with that decision.

When I think back to how my life looked this time last year, I can’t help but laugh out loud. Last August, I was sipping cocktails by the pool at White City House with London illuminated in the background, wondering if I was ready to let this life go.

I was chatting to a friend-of-a-friend, a woman around my age, who was aghast at the idea that I was abandoning my life in the British capital to move halfway across the world to live with my two dads in Denver. So much so that her perfectly manicured hand almost dropped her spicy margarita when I told her the news.

She wasn’t alone. Most people were flummoxed as to why I would swap a charming flat in the heart of Marylebone and a thriving social calendar to live in our family house smack dab in the middle of America.

By many definitions, you could say I had made it

I left the Mile High City over two decades ago and called Miami, NYC, and London home for varying lengths of time. I had a stacked résumé and traveled to over 50 countries, many of them solo. Though none of that seemed to matter as much after I turned 40. What mattered most to me was that I didn’t want to take time with my family for granted.

As an expat, I always find myself coming back to a cost-to-closeness ratio. Many moons ago, I was having dinner with a new friend I’d been introduced to through mutual friends in Paris. Over escargots and red wine, he told me all about the glamorous adventures he had embarked upon, seemingly plucked right from the scenes of “The Devil Wears Prada.”

What stuck out to me all these years later is not how he knew every designer under the sun, but how he spoke about the calculations behind his trips back to the States. He suggested that we were both in our 30s and that, if we were lucky, we could manage two trips back home a year, but some years it might be just one. If we were even luckier, we would have our parents with us for at least another 25 years. His grand takeaway was: if the experiences you’re living while you’re abroad no longer make your heart sing, then was living so far away worth it?

Time with family became perilously finite

So, one Sunday afternoon after a deliberate bout of hemming and hawing, not to mention a few pints at my local, I called my dad and said I was coming home. Unlike many of my peers, I didn’t look at the move as a step back. Instead, I chose to look at the adventure as my “Glitter Gap Year,” as I called it. Besides, if all else failed, I had my UK citizenship and could always move back.

It’s been nearly a year since I hopped on that plane back to my beloved cow town, and it’s been a robust adjustment, but oddly, an even better experience than I could have ever dreamt up.

Sure, there are times when I miss my independence and wish I could catch a last-minute showing in the West End as I often did, but there is a beautiful luxury to seeing my two dads at the start and end of every day that few things can compare to.

What I’ve learned to appreciate are the small moments. Getting to chat about the state of the garden, shaking my head at ridiculous dad jokes, and relishing in every single hug.