The legacy of career and technical education (CTE) in years past, stretching into the vocational education era, was lower college enrollment after participating in CTE. More recently, others have concluded that college enrollment is not affected but that CTE students enroll more frequently in 2-year degrees over 4-year degrees. I revisit the…

The value of a college degree continues to rise. A bachelor's degree in particular provides unrivaled economic and health benefits not just for the individual earning the degree, but for the entire state. Therefore, it is not surprising to see growing demand for a college education coupled with growing eligibility for California's public…

Using data from the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study and propensity score matching techniques, this study examined the impact of having attended a community college on baccalaureate recipients' access to graduate and professional schools in general and how previous community college attendance influenced student enrollment in different…

This paper measures the effects of undergraduate student loan debt on graduates' post-college outcomes: employment, additional enrollment, family formation, home ownership, and net worth. The analysis uses data from a nationally representative sample of 2007-08 bachelor's degree recipients. Because a graduate's debt burden is not randomly…

Recent efforts to increase college access and completion concentrate on reducing tuition rates at community colleges, but researchers and policy makers alike have expressed concern that such reductions may not lead to long-term gains in college completion. In this paper, I use detailed data on students' college enrollment and completion outcomes…

This report describes the design, methods, and results of the 2016/20 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:16/20) conducted by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). It is the second follow-up with a cohort of bachelor's degree recipients originally identified during the 2015-16 National…

Indiana, Oklahoma, and Washington have programs designed to address college enrollment and completion gaps by offering a promise of state-based college financial aid to low-income middle school students in exchange for making a pledge to do well in high school, be a good citizen, not be convicted of a felony, and apply for financial aid to…

This report provides information on degree productivity for certain undergraduate student populations at Maryland's four-year public institutions. The data address trends from 2014 to 2018 using the measure Degrees per All (DpAll), which is a derivative of the measure degrees per 100 students. DpAll incorporates identifiable characteristics, such…

As a partner with the City University of New York (CUNY) on the Transfer Opportunity Project, MDRC's Center for Applied Behavioral Science (CABS) team used behavioral mapping to help identify the malleable factors (that is, the factors subject to change) that impede student transfer. MDRC and CUNY researchers conducted nearly 50 interviews and…

We replicate and extend prior work on Florida's Bright Futures merit aid scholarship to consider its effect on college enrollment and degree completion. We estimate causal impacts using a regression discontinuity design to exploit SAT thresholds that strongly determine eligibility. We find no positive impacts on attendance or attainment, and…

A college degree is increasingly vital for career mobility and economic success as more employers are requiring greater levels of education and credentials. For more than 150 years, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have played a leading role in graduating black students and have made significant contributions to the workforce…

This First Look report presents selected findings from transcript data collected through the Postsecondary Education Transcript Study (PETS) for the 2011-12 cohort of the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:12). The students in the 2011-12 cohort were selected during the 2011-12 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study…

We replicate and extend prior work on Florida's Bright Futures merit aid scholarship to consider its effect on college enrollment and degree completion. We estimate causal impacts using a regression discontinuity design to exploit SAT thresholds that strongly determine eligibility. We find no positive impacts on attendance or attainment, and…

"Current Term Enrollment Estimates Report" series is published every December and May by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. It provides national enrollment estimates by degree level, institutional sector, enrollment intensity, age group, gender, major field as well as state-level enrollment estimates. Starting in fall…

Students who delay college enrollment after they graduate from high school have a lower chance of completing a college degree compared to students who enroll in college immediately after high school. This article explores delayers' involvement in high-impact postsecondary campus activities to understand whether participation in high-impact…