Posts Tagged: graduates
Latino college completion rates low despite enrollment
The gap dropped to 9 percent in 2014 from 14 percent in 2012 among those who entered college as first time, full-time undergraduates, according to the report.
But it's a different story when part-time students, which account for almost half of Hispanic students, are included. In California, home to the largest number of the country's Hispanics, only 15 percent of Latino students completed their undergraduate degree or certificate in the year 2010-11. In Texas, the number was 17 percent.
Low rates of college completion - especially at the community college level- do not just affect Hispanics. The difference is that in most states, there is still a very big gap between the number of Hispanic adults holding a degree compared to the rest of the population.
At East Los Angeles College in California, about 24,000 Latino students enrolled in the year 2011-12, but only about 1,000 completed their Associate Degree that year. And although California has the highest number of Latinos, not one of its colleges were in the top five institutions awarding associate or bachelor's degrees to Latinos.
Low rates of college completion - especially at the community college level- do not just affect Hispanics. In Texas, when part-time students are taken into account, only 18 percent of non-Latino whites obtained a degree in 2010-11 academic year.
The difference is that in most states, there is still a very big gap between the number of Hispanic adults holding a degree compared to the rest of the population. Nationally, only twenty percent of Latino adults have a postsecondary degree, compared to 36 percent of all U.S. adults. In California, only 16 percent of Latino adults over 25 have an associate or bachelor's degree, compared to 38 percent of all adults in that age group. In Texas, it's 16 percent of Hispanics who hold a degree, compared to 32 percent of total adults those ages.
At the same time, more and more Hispanic children are entering the nation's schools. In California, Hispanic students make up over half of the K-12 population; in Texas, it's about half. At the national level, 22 percent of children in K-12 are Hispanic.
Source: Originally published on nbcnews.com as Latino College Completion Rates Low Despite EnrollmentBy Sandra Lilley, April 15, 2014.
Hispanic Ph.D. science graduates are more likely to accrue debt
"The Price of a Science PhD: Variations in Student Debt Levels Across Disciplines and Race/Ethnicity" examines debt accrued by those who were U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents when they received their doctoral degrees in 2010.
The brief is being released as institutions of higher education, policymakers and others are encouraging minorities to pursue advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Among those who studied a STEM discipline, about 26 percent of whites and Asians owed debt upon graduation, compared with about 49 percent of African Americans and 36 of Hispanics who did. Twenty-five percent of African Americans and 14 percent of Hispanics owed more than $30,000 at graduation, while about 10 percent of whites and Asians graduated with that level of debt.
The authors indicated that financing a Ph.D. in the sciences can result in high levels of debt, particularly for under-represented minorities.
The authors of the brief also looked at the social, behavioral and economic sciences. Compared with STEM, more Ph.D. graduates in those fields carry loans of more than $30,000, with 35 percent of whites and Asians, 44 percent of Hispanics, and 58 percent of African Americans accruing this level of debt.
Those who study these disciplines have a larger burden because they are less likely to receive institutional funding and it takes them more time on average to complete their studies, the authors said. In 2010, the median time to complete a Ph.D. in the social, behavioral and economic sciences is 7.7 years compared with 6.3 years for a student studying in a STEM field.
Disparities still existed along racial and ethnic lines even when students’ time to completion did not exceed the median. Among STEM students who earned their doctorate within the median 6.3 years: 23 percent of white and Asian recipients, 32 percent of Hispanic recipients, and 43 percent of African American recipients completed their studies with debt.
The authors of the brief also looked at debt accumulation along gender lines. Of those who studied the social, behavioral or economic sciences, females were more likely than their male peers to owe debt.
Source: Published originally on American Institutes for Research (AIR) as BlackEngineer.com as African American and Hispanic Ph.D. Science Graduates Are More Likely to Accrue Debt than Their White and Asian Peers, Study Finds, May 2013.