This Data Point uses data from the 2016/17 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:16/17). The study is a national survey of students who earned a bachelor's degree during the 2015-16 academic year. Students are surveyed at different time points to study change. The second collection was done in 2017, about 1 year after respondents…

The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program is the U.S. Department of State's flagship undergraduate study abroad scholarship program designed for high-achieving American undergraduate students of limited financial means (Pell Grant recipients). The Institute of International Education (IIE) has supported its implementation since the…

As higher education enrollment patterns have changed, so too has the focus for institutional administrators. The community schools model is currently being piloted in New York State in an effort to increase the bleak retention and persistence rates of community college students. College students have been shown to be retained at higher rates when…

Verification is a federally mandated process that requires selected students to further attest that the information reported on their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is accurate and complete. In this brief, we estimate institutional costs of administrating the FAFSA verification mandate and consider variation in costs by…

Community college enrollment has significantly declined since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Between the spring 2020 term and the spring 2022 term, community college enrollment declined by nearly 17 percent nationwide. This alarming trend has posed a threat to the well-being of community colleges and the students they serve, which includes…

The state of Michigan has set a goal to increase the percentage of residents with a postsecondary degree or credential to 60 percent by 2030. Achieving that goal will require a concerted, strategic, and multipronged effort. Today, less than 50 percent of residents have attained a postsecondary degree or credential. While making college more…

The annual Performance Accountability Report (PAR) serves as an important mechanism by which public colleges and universities in Maryland are held accountable. Through a performance accountability plan, institutions are required to establish and maintain performance standards, and use metrics to assess their effectiveness in tackling institutional…

Purpose: The overall purpose of this journal-ready dissertation centered on community college students in Texas, was to determine the degree to which changes had occurred in upward transfer rates. The first specific purpose was to establish the degree to which changes had occurred in upward transfer rates for Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White…

Reverse credit transfer (RCT) is an emerging policy designed to award associate's degrees to students who transfer from 2-year to 4-year colleges after transfer. The purpose of this study is to estimate the impact of RCT degree receipt on students' university and labor outcomes using data from Texas, where the legislature passed RCT policy in…

College affordability is a significant factor in student access, retention and completion. Tuition and fee rates are a major component of affordability, as is the availability of financial aid programs from federal, state, institutional and private sources. Strategically designed approaches to college affordability can better assist families in…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how first-generation Latino and African American Pell grant recipients, who attended a large urban community college located in New York City, described their understanding of and experiences with satisfactory academic progress (SAP) policy and its influence on academic persistence…

Incarcerated individuals have lower educational attainment than the general population, but education plays an important part in their re-entry into society. Prison education has shown to increase the likelihood of employment upon release and reduced recidivism. With about 1.5 million incarcerated individuals in state and federal prisons, and…

As the cost of higher education has continued to rise, public interest in the proportional economic return on investment in higher education has also grown. While research associating the quality of education and institutional attributes with graduate earning potentials exists in the university sector, fewer studies have focused on earning…

College affordability is a significant factor in student access, retention, and completion. Tuition and fee rates are a major component of affordability, as is the availability of financial aid programs from federal, state, institutional and private sources. Strategically designed approaches to college affordability can better assist families in…

College affordability is a significant factor in student access, retention and completion. Tuition and fee rates are a major component of affordability, as is the availability of financial aid programs from federal, state, institutional and private sources. Strategically designed approaches to college affordability can better assist families in…