Students often take longer to earn a bachelor’s degree than the normal four years allotted, but at four Delaware County universities, that goal is still within reach for many students, writes Jan Murphy for pennlive.com.

Here’s a look at which colleges and universities from Delaware County ranked among the Top 100 nationally for having the highest four-year graduation rates.

The highest rank Delaware County school in the state was Swarthmore College, which came in 10th. It showed an 88.9 percent success rate.

Next was Villanova University, which ranked 25th. It had an 87.4 percent success rate.

That was followed by Haverford College, which ranked 29th. It had an 87 percent success rate.

A distant fourth was Penn State University-Brandywine. It was ranked 91st, with a 19.5 percent success rate.

The statistics were gathered through a Chronicle of Higher Education analysis of U.S. Department of Education data.

The data reflects the graduation rate of undergraduates who entered as freshmen in the fall 2011 and completed their degree work by August 2015, the most recent data available.

The analysis divides the schools between public and private institutions and breaks them into three residential categories.

Click here to see the entire list.

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