DAS Website - Reports

Reports are listed by publication year, in descending order.

By Susan Choy and Ellen Bradburn

Using longitudinal data from the 1992-93 Baccalaureate and Beyond Study (B&B:93/03) representing about 1.2 million bachelor’s degree recipients that year, this report examines college graduates’ work experiences in 1994, 1997, and 2003, describing their labor force status, employment stability and intensity, occupations and industries, salaries and benefits, and perceptions about their jobs. It compares the experiences of graduates with academic and career-oriented undergraduate majors. About half of all the graduates (51 percent) were employed and not enrolled at all three follow-ups, but the other half moved into and out of the workforce, often to pursue further education. By 2003, some 46 percent of graduates had ever been unemployed (not working, but looking for work) since they had graduated, but unemployment became less prevalent the longer graduates had been out of college. By 2003, most graduates were settled in a job they considered a career and used their education, and the average salary for a graduate employed full time at one job, adjusted for inflation, had roughly doubled since 1994. A majority were satisfied with their pay, fringe benefits, job security, and opportunity for promotion. Compared with graduates with academic undergraduate majors, those with career-oriented majors appeared to establish themselves in the labor force earlier and relatively fewer obtained additional education.

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By Robin R. Henke, Katharin Peter, and Sonya Geis

This report discusses teaching in elementary and secondary schools, preparing to teach at the elementary/secondary level, and considering teaching among 1999-2000 college graduates as of 2001 (i.e., within about a year of completing the bachelor’s degree). It is based on data from the 2000/01 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:2000/01), a spring 2001 follow-up of bachelor’s degree recipients from the 1999-2000 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:2000).

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By Ellen Bradburn, Rachael Berger, Xiaojie Li, Katharin Peter, and Kathryn Rooney

This report provides a basic demographic profile of 1999-2000 bachelor's degree recipients and examines the institutional paths they took to complete their bachelor's degrees. The report also describes the amount of time recipients took to complete their bachelor's degrees, assessed from both the time they completed high school and the time they entered postsecondary education.

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By Ellen Bradburn and Rachel Berger

Using the 1993/97 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:93/97), this report describes the employment experiences of 1992–93 bachelor’s degree recipients in spring 1997, focusing on part-time employment, self-employment, employment in multiple jobs, employment in clerical and support occupations, and employment in field professions. Background characteristics associated with these types of alternative employment are explored, including an examination of differential participation in these types of arrangements by gender. In addition, the report examines differences in other employment characteristics such as benefits, salary, and satisfaction by alternative employment.

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By Susan Choy, Michael Clune, and Anne-Marie Nunez

This report aims to provide a context for understanding the paths that women and men take toward graduate degrees, employment, marriage, and parenthood during the first 4 years after earning their bachelor's degree. In particular, the analysis seeks to identify how these behaviors are interrelated. After controlling for other characteristics that affect graduate enrollment, women who married before receiving their bachelor's degree were less likely to enroll in graduate school within 4 years of receiving their degree than were women who had not yet married.

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By Robin Henke and Sonya Geis

This report examines the occupation stability of bachelor's degree recipients during the first 4 years after receiving the bachelor's degree. The analyses address the following question: were graduates who were teaching in 1994 more or less likely than those in other occupations to leave the work force or work in a different occupation in 1997? The data indicate that K-12 teachers among 1992-93 college graduates were among the least likely to work in different occupations in 1997 compared with 1994.

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By Laura Horn and Anne-Marie Nunez

This report investigates the relationship between undergraduate majors and early employment outcomes of 1992-93 college graduates who had not enrolled in graduate school within 4 years of obtaining their bachelor's degree (70 percent of all B.A. recipients). Outcomes include salaries earned in 1994 and 1997 (and the percentage increase in salary), job stability, job benefits in 1997 and satisfaction with employment. Engineering and computer science majors experienced very positive outcomes, while education and humanities and arts majors experienced relatively negative outcomes. Nursing majors reported very stable employment as did business and engineering majors.

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By Susan Choy

Using data from 1992-93 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study and the two follow-ups conducted in 1994 and 1997, this report examines the debt of 1992-93 bachelor's degree recipients in light of their financial circumstances in 1997, approximately 4 year after they earned their degree. First, it reviews the amount they borrowed as undergraduates and describes any additional borrowing by those who had enrolled in a graduate degree program. Next, it examines the progress that borrowers had made in repaying their student loans in 1997. Finally, the study describes their debt burden by examining the relationship between student loan payments and income and by searching for other indications of the impact of borrowing.

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By Alexander McCormick, Anne-Marie Nunez, Vishant Shah, and Susan Choy

This report uses data from the Second Follow-up of the Baccalaureate and Beyond Study (B&B:93/97) to describe the enrollment and employment experiences of 1992-93 bachelor's degree recipients. The essay examines a number of aspects of their experiences with graduate and first-professional education. A Compendium of tables and highlights from the tables following the essay detail aspects of graduates' employment in April 1997.

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By Suzanne Clery, John Lee, and Laura Knapp

This report discusses the educational attainment, employment consistency, gender dominance of major field of study for those who attained a postsecondary certificate or degree, and annual earnings of the 1980 sophomore class in 1992, ten years after most of the students in that cohort graduated from high school.

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By Susan Choy

With borrowing becoming an increasingly common way for undergraduates to finance their postsecondary education, this report examines this phenomenon relative to students' early labor market experiences after they leave. Students who are recent college graduates as well as those who dropped out are included in the analysis. Using data from the BPS and B&B surveys, the report focuses on the labor force status, the amount borrowed, the repayment schedule, and overall debt burden (monthly income devoted to repayment) experienced by students following their departure from PSE.

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By Alexander McCormick and Laura Horn

This report provides a detailed profile of the population of 1992-93 bachelor's degree recipients, with particular attention to the amount of time taken to complete the degree, an issue of intense interest to students, parents, policy makers, and administrators.

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