About 17.5 million students are expected to enroll in undergraduate programs, and 3.0 million will enroll in post-baccalaureate programs (source). Our school had a higher percentage of black students in the student body than the state had--almost double. Student Loan Debt Statistics. Altogether, 54.8 percent of those students completed a degree or certificate within six years of entering a postsecondary institution, but broken down by race and ethnicity, those rates fluctuate by up to 25 percent. Minority students tend to enrol in less selective institutions. The percentage of Black students increased from 10 percent in 1976 to 14 percent in 2017, but the 2017 percentage reflects a decrease since 2011, when … Jill Barshay is a staff writer and editor who writes the weekly “Proof Points” column about education research and data. While 18-21-year-olds make up a significant percentage of students, they still account for less than half (42.15%) of all students. Percentage of students who graduate without student loan debt: 74% Average debt at graduation for students taking out loans: $12,560 Racial and ethnic makeup of the student body: White and Asian students completed their programs at similar rates -- 62 percent and 63.2 percent, respectively -- while Hispanic and black students graduated at rates of 45.8 percent and 38 … Only 21 percent of blacks and 15 percent of Latinos have a bachelor’s degree or more, compared with 35 percent of whites and 54 percent of Asians. Veteran status, age, dependency status, and race/ethnicity all impact on disability rates amongst corresponding student cohorts. Required fields are marked *. Approximately 12.6 million students currently attend full-time while 7.8 million attend part-time (source). For the state of Virginia, they had access to family income, which was listed on college applications. The plurality of college students, 39 percent, indicated that they are responsible for paying for some of their college education. Among low-income and first-generation college students, more than a third are parents, and minorities are especially likely to be balancing parenting and college, with 37% of African American, 33% of Native American, and 25 percent of Latino students raising children. , 4.8 million college students were parents of dependent children in 2011. Urban Institute analyzes graduation rates by race and ethnicity at colleges and universities in Virginia and Connecticut. The Urban Institute researchers calculated graduation rates by race and ethnicity in Virginia and Connecticut and found that white and Asian students graduate at higher rates than black and Latino students at most colleges. Around 38% of White drop out of college, while 62% of African Americans and 54.8% of Hispanics drop out within 6 years of enrollment. The server responded with {{status_text}} (code {{status_code}}). They’re not the state’s most selective institutions such as University of Virginia in Charlottesville, College of William and Mary or Virginia Tech. For Connecticut, they could see if the student came from a family poor enough to quality for federal Pell grants. Fall 2019 Total Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity and College: Percentages Black Hispanic White Asian/ Pacific Islander American Indian/Alaska Native Baruch 0.1 41.5 11.0 17.6 29.8 For Virginia, the researchers were able to reveal the names of the colleges, but not for Connecticut. Even though the server responded OK, it is possible the submission was not processed. As more mature aged students either start college, the number of married college students increases. This story about college graduation rates by race and ethnicity was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. For example, black students are more likely to attend a two-year college and attend on a part-time basis. Your email address will not be published. When people think of a college student, they often imagine an unmarried High school graduate in their late teens or early 20's attending full time on campus. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 71.5% of students did not take a distance education course as part of their degree in 2014. College dropout rates are based on race as well. Perhaps a black student with the same academic preparation, family income and wealth, does graduate college at the same rate as a white student. Students with weaker academic preparation might be more likely to fail classes and drop out of college. In fall 2017, about three-quarters of postsecondary faculty members in the U.S. were white (76%), compared with 55% of undergraduates, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). For example, 50 percent of white and Asian students obtained their four-year bachelor’s degrees within six years at the Jefferson College of Health Science in Roanoke (now part of Radford University) compared to only 18 percent of blacks and Latinos. She taught algebra to ninth graders for the 2013-14 school year. Shutterstock. In 2015, there were 11.8 million college and university students under age 25 and 8.1 million students 25 years old and over. The gaps are smaller in Connecticut and at two-year colleges but they still exist. Student loan debt in 2020 is now about $1.56 trillion. Enrollment in the 468 best-funded and most selective four-year institutions is 75 percent white, the Georgetown University Center for Education and the Workforce reports . in response to student demand for flexibility. The graduation gap at the Jefferson College of Health Science, which I referred to above, falls from above 30 percentage points to around 15 percentage points — still significant. The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. In 2018, the college enrollment rate was higher for 18- to 24-year-olds who were Asian (59 percent) than for 18- to 24-year-olds who were White (42 percent), Black (37 percent), and Hispanic (36 percent). The overall college enrollment rate has increased since 2000. Over recent years, there has been a dramatic shift in the opposite direction. The Hechinger Report is a national nonprofit newsroom that reports on one topic: education. At some colleges in Virginia, the gap exceeds 30 percentage points. But that doesn't mean it's free to produce. By submitting your name, you grant us permission to publish it with your letter. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter. Nearly 40 percent of white students and 70.6 percent of black students received need-based financial aid. In most cases, the gaps plummet by more than half. 37% of African American, 33% of Native American, and 25 percent of Latino students raising children. The bar charts below show the raw and adjusted graduation gaps for institutions in Virginia and Connecticut. At The Hechinger Report, we publish thoughtful letters from readers that contribute to the ongoing discussion about the education topics we cover. Black and Latino students also often encounter more financial hardship in college and drop out for economic reasons. More by Jill Barshay. At one Virginia community college, Paul D. Camp in Franklin, there is still a 20 percentage point difference between the graduation rates of whites and Asians and those of blacks and Latinos. Help us keep doing that. Forty-two percent of white students aged 18 to 24 were enrolled in college in 2013, compared to 34 percent of black and Hispanic students that age, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Black and Latino families often have less savings and fewer assets to fall back on. Blom pointed out that Pasadena City College in California was able to reduce graduation inequities after it scrutinized its student data and changed dozens of policies. Detailed information on data collection methods is included with each fact sheet. You must fill out all fields to submit a letter. Digest of Education Statistics Statistics on student financial aid and student charges. **Data unavailable for 2008-09 and 2009-10 Other statistics on the topic Many students hold full-time jobs while enrolled in classes, one-quarter are parents, and many are the first in their family to attend college. In Virginia, for example, more than 50 percent of all black college students attend just four colleges, according to research by the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank. For example, among dependent undergraduates, 9 percent reported having a disability, which was lower than the percentages for independent undergraduates who were married (13 percent) or unmarried (14 percent). Interestingly, 34 percent of students who enroll full-time for at least one term earn an associate degree or certificate while only 23 percent of those who always enroll part-time do so. Wartburg College has almost same number of students compared to similar colleges (1,549 students in average - Private (not-for-profit) Baccalaureate College - Arts & Sciences). Related: Federal data shows 3.9 million students dropped out of college with debt in 2015 and 2016. “Institutional leaders need to think strongly about the way their rhetoric does not align with the actual institutional policies in who gains access to and graduates from their college,” said Dominique Baker, an assistant professor of education policy at Southern Methodist University, who reviewed the Urban Institute study, in an e-mail interview. The school has high racial diversity. We have a problem in America. Among traditional-age students, however, black students had the lowest completion rate (49.4 percent), followed by Hispanic students (58.2 percent), white students (70.7 percent), and Asian students (73.7 percent). We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. There is no indication that this trend won't continue. This is where the Urban Institute analysis gets really interesting. 34 percent of students who enroll full-time for at least one term earn an associate degree or certificate while only 23 percent of those who always enroll part-time do so. Men have traditionally attended university at far higher rates than women. White students receive more than three-quarters (76 percent) of all institutional merit-based scholarship and grant funding, even though they represent less than two-thirds (62 percent) of the student population, according to the report published by Mark Kantrowitz, the financial aid guru behind Fastweb.com and FinAid.org. Type of LetterLetterCorrectionRequest for Information, {{#message}}{{{message}}}{{/message}}{{^message}}Your submission failed. This website uses cookies as well as similar tools and technologies to understand visitors’ experiences. This segregated sorting in higher education is somewhat understandable. Data submitted annually by NCAA member schools were previously compiled as the Student-Athlete Race and Ethnicity Report and the Race and Gender Demographics Reports (one for institutions and one for conferences) that were either printed or presented as PDFs online. But the Urban Institute report does not make such accusations. As no race/ethnicity data was collected for these students they are displayed separately. For example, since 1994, enrolment of black students has doubled at institutions that primarily grant associate degrees, including community colleges. Learn More{{/message}}. Over the same time period, the percentage of Caucasian/White students decreased, from 73.7 percent in 2004-05 to 70 percent in 2014-15. Still the racial concentration in just a few institutions is striking, given that Virginia has sizable black populations in many counties throughout the eastern half of the state and a wide choice of colleges and universities. One way to look at inequality in America is to notice how people of different races and ethnicities get sorted into different colleges. One might hope if we could adjust for these factors —  academic preparation and family income —  that racial graduation gaps would disappear. When I talked with Erica Blom, one of the authors, she applauded education leaders in Virginia and Connecticut for wanting to understand their equity gaps and opening their student data records to this kind of scrutiny. “I mean, why does a student’s lack of financial resources predict the gap in graduation likelihood between Black and white students?”, Related: Behind the Latino college degree gap, “Understanding Equity Gaps in College Graduation” was written by Erica Blom and Tomas Monarrez at the Urban Institute and published in January 2020. Here is a breakdown of student demographics at American universities. … Fourteen percent of dependent students with family incomes in the lowest income quartile (less than $30,000) who started at a public two-year college in 2003–04 completed an associate degree by 2009. The college’s efforts were explained at length in a story published September 2019 in Politico. (The Urban Institute received funding from Arnold Ventures, a philanthropic corporation, which is also among the many funders of The Hechinger Report.). It’s possible that the adjusted graduation gaps would further close to zero if family wealth were factored in. Black Virginians were more likely to have grown up in poor neighborhoods and attended elementary, middle and high schools with other poor students, less experienced teachers and fewer resources. The reality is different, with diversity increasing in many key areas in recent years. The authors focused on Virginia and Connecticut because those are the two states where they were able to obtain detailed data for students but it is likely that the findings are similar nationally. Moreover, the college success rate gap between White and Black students would be nearly 30 percentage points, and roughly 21 percentage points for Latino students. Women now comprise 56 percent of students on campuses nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Education. In 2015/2016, 56 percent of college students were female and 44 percent were male. At all four-year universities and colleges in Virginia, the average graduation gap between whites and Asians and blacks and Latinos is 16 percentage points. Instead, large numbers of black students attend Old Dominion and Virginia Commonwealth universities. College Costs: State Spending Charts Changes in state spending on college education, state student aid, tuition, & fees. Black students are less likely to apply and be admitted to the state’s top tier schools. In school,... The researchers looked at data from all public and private nonprofit universities in Virginia and from all public and two private institutions in Connecticut that volunteered to participate. According to Education Department estimates, by 2026, 57 percent of college students will be women. Amongst these students, approximately 66% are women and 33% are men. In total enrolment figures that translates to 2.2 million fewer men than women enrolled in college this year. Of those students, 65 percent enrolled for at least three semesters at a community college. According to a 2014 study from the Institute for Women's Policy Research, 4.8 million college students were parents of dependent children in 2011. Public institutions command the greatest portion of distance education students, with 67.8 percent of all distance students. An additional 6% earned a certificate, and 13% earned a bachelor's degree. While Whites remained the majority in 2016, their representation declined as the presidency became more racially and ethnically diverse. But the researchers didn’t know students’ wealth. Credit: Chart from "Understanding Equity Gaps in College Graduation," Urban Institute, January 2020. A college's ethnic diversity is indicated by the student body's equal inclusion of students from different backgrounds. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Minority attendance at University is growing. The director of professional development formed faculty book clubs to discuss Claude Steele’s “Whistling Vivaldi,” a book about “stereotype threat,” which is a psychological theory about how minorities perform worse in environments where people like them traditionally don’t succeed. By 2016, distance education enrolments had increased for the fourteenth straight year. Students at BC are primarily White with a small Asian population.The school has medium racial diversity. “In 2017, only about half (49.9 percent) of elementary school students and 54.7 percent of college students were non-Hispanic white,” said Kurt Bauman, Chief, Education and Social Stratification Branch. In contrast, less than 25 percent … What this means is that even among students with the same high school grades and family income, a white student is, on average, 20 percentage points more likely to get a two-year associate degree than a black student. College applications can only seek racial and ethnic identity in order to comply with non-discrimination laws or to provide equal opportunity, but students do not have to self-identify. Then they mathematically adjusted the graduation rates, comparing students with the same academic preparation and family income or poverty status at each college. “If the will or money is not present, it is difficult to see large-scale structural change occurring,” Baker said by e-mail. In fall 2017, 7.0 million students attended 2-year institutions and 13.4 million attended 4-year institutions. Learn More{{/message}}, {{#message}}{{{message}}}{{/message}}{{^message}}It appears your submission was successful. For example, biology professors at the college erased a rule banning late assignments or makeup exams. 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