Postsecondary Persistence And Attainment

This report provides a description of the degree attainment and persistence of a nationally representative sample of students who began postsecondary education for the first time in the 2003-2004 academic year. The report provides a first look at the experience of these students over three academic years, from July 2003 to June 2006, and provides information about rates of program completion, transfer, and attrition for students who first enrolled at various types of postsecondary institutions using data from the 2004/06 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/06). The tables in this report present information about beginning student enrollment and program completion from two different perspectives. The first is from the perspective of the student, looking at beginning enrollment history and degree attainment at any postsecondary institution over the 3-year period of the report. The second is from the perspective of the first institution attended. The difference between perspectives reflects the fact that many students transfer out of the first institution attended. When beginning students leave the institution where they first enrolled and then enroll at a different institution, they continue to persist in postsecondary education, but from the perspective of the institution where they started, they have no longer been retained. The document includes two appendixes: (A) Glossary; and (B) BPS:04/06 Technical Notes and Methodology. (Contains 1 figure and 6 tables.).

In the 2003-04 academic year, approximately 4 million undergraduates began postsecondary education for the first time, enrolling in a wide variety of institutions, including 4-year colleges and universities, public 2-year community colleges, and for-profit institutions offering career-oriented and vocational programs. These Web Tables cover the enrollment experiences of a representative national sample of these 2003-04 first-time postsecondary students over a period of 6 academic years, from 2003-04 to 2008-09, and provide information about the rates at which these students completed degrees or certificates, transferred to other institutions, and left postsecondary education without attaining any degrees or certificates. The data are based on the 2003-04 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, Second Follow-up (BPS:04/09). The tables are grouped into six sections. Section 1 presents the distribution of the first-time postsecondary students by demographic and enrollment characteristics within degree programs and within the types of institutions that they first attended. Section 2 presents 6-year attainment and persistence rates "at any institution." Section 3 presents the 6-year rates of attainment and retention "at the first institution attended." Section 4 presents 2003-04 first-time postsecondary students' 6-year persistence and attainment rates "at any institution" by the type of program (certificate, associate's degree, or bachelor's degree) in which they were enrolled during their first year (2003-04). Section 5 presents the year-by-year cumulative rates at which these students (1) withdrew from postsecondary education without a degree and (2) withdrew without a degree from the first institution attended. Section 6 presents information about the 2003-04 first-time postsecondary students who transferred, including both those who transferred without a degree as well as those who had attained a certificate or an associate's degree before transferring. Section 7 shows the bachelor's degree completion rates in 4 years or less, in 5 years, or in 6 years of 2003-04 first-time postsecondary students who started in bachelor's degree programs at public and at private nonprofit 4-year institutions. A glossary is included. (Contains 228 tables and 5 endnotes.).

This Data Point examines the persistence and attainment of students who enrolled in postsecondary education for the first time in 2003-04, focusing on subbaccalaureate students (those seeking a certificate or associate's degree) and, among subbaccalaureate students, those who pursue occupational education. Their progress was tracked over 6 years. The BPS students examined here were initially surveyed in 2003-04 (at the end of their first academic year) then re-surveyed in 2005-06 and in 2008-09. The final BPS:04/09 dataset contains information on nearly 16,700 students. It was found that: (1) Subbaccalaureate students have a lower rate of persistence and attainment than baccalaureate students; and (2) Students seeking a subbaccalaureate credential in an occupational field of study have a persistence and attainment rate that is not measurably different from that of subbaccalaureate students in other fields of study.

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 experiences of these first-time beginning students over 3 academic years, 2011-12, 2012-13, and 2013-14, and provides information about the rates at which students completed degrees or certificates as well as the rates at which they persisted at the same institution, transferred to other institutions, or left postsecondary education without completing degrees or certificates. The findings presented in this report have been chosen to demonstrate the range of information available when using BPS data rather than to discuss all of the observed differences, and they are not meant to emphasize any particular issue. The first-time postsecondary students in the BPS:12/14 study were identified in the 2011-12 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:12). NPSAS:12 is a nationally representative sample of about 95,000 undergraduate and 16,000 graduate students attending about 1,500 Title IV eligible postsecondary institutions in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. First-time beginners in the BPS:12/14 study participated in two interviews: in 2012, at the end of their first year in postsecondary education, and 3 years after they had started postsecondary education in 2014. The following are appended: (1) Glossary; and (2) Technical Notes and Methodology.