Deregulation of for-profit colleges led to a precipitous rise in enrollments from 1990 to 2010. Since 2010, regulation, investigations, and sanctions have led to enrollment declines in for-profit postsecondary institutions. Initially barred from receiving Title IV federal funds, in the form of Pell Grants and Stafford Loans, for-profit colleges…

Evidence of inefficient course-taking patterns at community colleges has spurred policy conversations about how to ensure effective course sequences. Structural reforms, like guided pathways, seek to reduce major switching as a means to streamline student course taking and eliminate unnecessary credits. By placing students into broad fields of…

Because of increasing mobility among various college student populations, both the baccalaureate degree attainment of community college beginners and the role played by their receiving 4-year institution are growing in importance. In this study, we examined how the academic and social involvement of community college transfer students differs by…

A previous "Evidence Speaks" report described the high rates at which student loan borrowers default on their repayment within 12 years of initial college entry, often on relatively modest amounts of debt. A striking pattern emerging from that and other prior work is how dramatically default rates vary by institution sector and by…

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Education released groundbreaking data showing that half of Black or African American borrowers who first entered college in the 2003-04 academic year defaulted on their student loans within 12 years. New federal data released this fall show that these numbers have not improved: Black or African American borrowers…

This report analyzes new data on student debt and repayment, released by the U.S. Department of Education in October 2017. Previously available data have been limited to borrowers only, follow students for a relatively short period (3-5 years) after entering repayment, and had only limited information on student characteristics and experiences.…

When planning for college, students face a range of constrained choices governed in part by variation among institutions. What are the economic consequences of those decisions and constraints during and after college? We know borrowing patterns vary by institutional sector, yet colleges within a sector vary considerably by admission and graduation…

This report provides a "first look" at selected findings from the 2012/14 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:12/14). It is based on final data describing a nationally representative sample of undergraduates who entered postsecondary education for the first time during the 2011-12 academic year. BPS:12/14 covers the…

Using the Beginning Postsecondary Student Survey, we examine the effect on earnings of obtaining certificates/degrees from for-profit, not-for-profit, and public institutions. Students who enter certificate programs at any type of institution do not gain from earning a certificate. However, among those entering associates degree programs, there…

The study utilized the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/06) data set to examine persistence outcomes over a 3-year period across the national sample of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds at public 2-year institutions in the United States. More specifically, the purpose of our study was to investigate how…

Private for-profit institutions have been the fastest growing part of the U.S. higher education sector. For-profit enrollment increased from 0.2 percent to 9.1 percent of total enrollment in degree-granting schools from 1970 to 2009, and for-profit institutions account for the majority of enrollments in non-degree granting postsecondary schools.…

This study examines the different processes that institutional researchers use to calculate the number of transfers-out for the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Graduation Rate Survey (GRS), with a particular focus on how the process is influenced by institutional mission and data availability. Policy makers and the public…

These Web Tables examine the demographic and postsecondary enrollment characteristics of undergraduates who attended for-profit institutions in 2007-08 and present the 6-year outcomes of undergraduates who first enrolled in for-profit postsecondary institutions in 2003-04. Data are presented for all for-profit students and separately for students…

The NEAIR (North East Association for Institutional Research) 2011 Conference Proceedings is a compilation of papers presented at the Boston, Massachusetts conference. Papers in this document include: (1) Are Students Dropping Out or Dragging Out the College Experience? The Roles of Socioeconomic Status and Academic Background (Leslie S. Stratton…

This paper uses data from the 2000 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:2000) and the 1996 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:96/01) to examine some behaviors and outcomes for immigrants and/or students who spoke a primary language other than English as children as compared to those of other citizens and English…