Going to and Finishing College

Here is a clip from a recent paper on college enrollment and completion. In short, it says that we have a long way to go to close the completion gap.

"More students are attending college than ever before, and the labor market rewards to completing a college degree have increased appreciably over the last quarter century. Yet, the rise in the incentives for collegiate completion has not been accompanied by an increase in the share of students making the transition from college enrollment to college completion. Among individuals age 23 in 1970, 23 percent of high school graduates had completed a BA degree while about 51 percent had enrolled in college for some period since high school graduation. For the same age group in 1999, the share of high school graduates who had enrolled in college at some point rose substantially to 67 percent while the share receiving a BA degree rose only slightly to 24 percent of the cohort. Thus, for college participants measured in their early twenties, completion rates fell by more than 25 percent over this interval. Measured at older ages completion rates are closer to stagnant, implying an overall increase in the time-to-degree.

Source: "Going to College and Finishing College: Explaining Different Educational Outcomes," by Sarah E. Turner, University of Virginia and National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

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