Fast Facts

Question:
How has the college enrollment rate varied over time?

Response:

The percentage of high school completers¹ who enroll in college in the fall immediately after high school reflects the accessibility and perceived value of college education. The immediate college (2- or 4-year) enrollment rate for all high school completers increased between 1972 and 1997 from 49 to 67 percent. Then, the enrollment rate declined to 62 percent by 2001, before rising to 69 percent in 2005.

Between 1972 and 1980, approximately half of White high school completers immediately enrolled in college. This immediate enrollment rate increased from the late 1970s through 1998 to 69 percent, but decreased to 64 percent by 2001 before increasing again to an all-time high of 73 percent in 2005. The annual Black immediate enrollment rate fluctuated between 1972 and 1977, but then decreased between 1978 and 1982, widening the gap between Blacks and Whites. The rate for Blacks then increased generally between 1983 and 2005, so that the gap narrowed between Blacks and Whites between 1999 and 2001. However, the gap has widened again since 2002. For Hispanics, the immediate college enrollment rate fluctuated over time, but increased overall between 1972 and 2005; nonetheless, the gap between Hispanics and Whites widened between 1979 and 1998, and then again between 2002 and 2005.

From 1972 to 2005, the immediate enrollment rate of high school completers increased faster for females than for males. Much of the growth in the overall rate for females was due to increases between 1981 and 1997 in the rate of attending 4-year institutions. During this period, the rate at which females enrolled at 4-year institutions increased faster than it did for their male counterparts and for either males or females at 2-year institutions.

Differences in immediate enrollment rates by family income and parents’ education have persisted. In each year between 1972 and 2005, the immediate college enrollment rate was higher for high school completers from high-income families than for their low-income peers.² Likewise, compared with completers whose parents had a bachelor’s or higher degree, those whose parents had less education had lower rates of immediate college enrollment in each year between 1992 and 2005.³

¹Refers to those who completed 12 years of school for survey years 1972–1991 and to those who earned a high school diploma or equivalency certificate (e.g., a General Educational Development [GED] certificate) for all years since 1992.

²Low income refers to the bottom 20 percent of all family incomes, high income refers to the top 20 percent of all family incomes, and middle income refers to the 60 percent in between.

³The earliest year with comparable data available for parents’ educational attainment is 1992.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2007). The Condition of Education 2007 (NCES 2007-064), Indicator 25.

Related Tables and Figures:  (Listed by Release Date)

• 2006, Digest of Education Statistics 2005, Table 181. College enrollment and enrollment rates of recent high school completers, by race/ethnicity: 1960 through 2004
  
• 2006, Digest of Education Statistics 2005, Table 182. College enrollment and enrollment rates of recent high school completers, by sex: 1960 through 2004
  
• 2006, Digest of Education Statistics 2005, Table 183. Graduation rates and postsecondary attendance rates of recent high school students, by selected high school characteristics: 1999-2000
  
• 2006, Digest of Education Statistics 2005, Table 372. College enrollment and labor force status of 2002, 2003, and 2004 high school completers, by sex and race/ethnicity: 2002, 2003, and 2004
  
• 2006, The Condition of Education 2006: Postsecondary Expectations of 12th-Graders
  
• 2004, The Condition of Education 2004: International Comparison of Transition to Postsecondary Education
  

Other Resources:  (Listed by Release Date)

• 2005, Dual Enrollment of High School Students at Postsecondary Institutions: 2002-03
  
• 2005, First Generation Students in Postsecondary Education: A Look at their College Transcripts
  
• 2005, Waiting to Attend College: Undergraduates Who Delay Their Postsecondary Enrollment
  
• 2004, ED TAB: The High School Sophomore Class of 2002: A Demographic Description. First Results From the Base Year of the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002
  
• 2001, Bridging the Gap: Academic Preparation and Postsecondary Success of First-Generation Students