Academic undermatching--students enrolling in colleges that are less academically selective than those for which they qualify--is a barrier hindering college degree attainment. Given the many reasons students undermatch, this phenomenon is likely to continue; yet, we know little about the characteristics that may be related to degree attainment…

This report presents selected findings from the 2020/22 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:20/22), a study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the U.S. Department of Education. The findings in this report are based on data about a nationally representative sample of all first-time beginning…

Research on college completion for students who work during their undergraduate education often approaches the topic from a financial perspective focused on aid and income status. This study takes a different approach by exploring the intersectionality of student employment and race, in relation to six-year bachelor's degree attainment. Based on a…

The skilled technical workforce (STW) comprises workers in occupations that require significant science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) skills but not a bachelor's degree for entry. The United States had over 17 million STW workers in 2017, and is expected to be short about 3.4 million workers who are qualified for the available…

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…

The following paper estimates the impact of initially declaring and then departing from a STEM major on college dropout and degree completion rates for students in the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study. The results show that students who initially declared a STEM major and switched to a "non-STEM" area of study were…

Objectives: In this study, we explore the influence of enrolling initially at a community college before transferring to a 4-year institution on the selectivity of the destination 4-year institution. Method: We leverage nationally representative data and a propensity score matching approach to compare the institutional selectivity between students…

This chapter discusses how understanding differences between National Guard members, reservists, active duty personnel, and veterans in higher education can better inform institutional evidence-based decision-making to support military-connected individuals' college access and success.

This study examines the effect of state need-based financial aid on crucial student outcome measures at 4-year institutions. In particular, I seek to analyze differential effects across income groups. To account for potential endogeneity bias and the nested data structure, this study employs a propensity score matching, multilevel modeling…

This research brief uses nationally representative data from the 2012/17 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:12/17) to examine post-college transitions of US undergraduates into the skilled technical workforce (STW), defined here as workers in a collection of occupations that require significant levels of science, technology,…

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…

Literature suggests that international students from Asian countries might differ in the way they can be supported in their efforts towards completing their degree. Using the 2004/09 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, the authors investigate how social and academic integration relate to the college persistence of Asian and…

Postsecondary education plays a critical role in building a strong workforce in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The U.S. postsecondary education system, however, frequently loses many potential STEM graduates through attrition. An increasing portion of STEM leavers are top performers who might have made valuable…

The 2015 Federal Student Aid Supplement (FSA Supplement), directed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) at the U.S. Department of Education (ED), is a collection of federal student loan data intended to augment the 1996/01 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:96/01) and the 2004/09 Beginning Postsecondary…

Students with a zero expected family contribution (EFC) are those with the greatest financial need and least ability to pay for college and now make up more than one in three American undergraduate students. Yet little is known about the year-to-year financial aid volatility of these students, or whether it varies by how the zero EFC was…