Wednesday, August 18, 2010

College going rates by state 2008 analysis

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CL Higher Education Center

Related blogs:
College Going Rates by State - 2008 Early Release
2006: College Going Rates by State - an Analysis
Estimated US College Going Rates by State - 2005-06

Is it the economic down turn or is it in response to Obama's call for more higher education enrollment? It doesn't seem to matter. The overall US college going rate for 2007-08 high school graduates do climb up for about 1.5%. The biggest gain occurred in the public 2-year colleges.

The overall US averages showed that the college going rate for degree-granting institutions increased from 61.7% in 2006 to 63.3% in 2008, an increase of 1.6%. At the mean time, the college going rate for non-degree-granting institutions decreased from 1.5% in 2006 to 1.4% in 2008 resulting in a net increase of 1.5% in the total college going rate.

overall rates by state
State% Going Degree-Granting% Going Non-Degree-Granting% Going Colleges
Alabama66.7%0.2%66.9%
Alaska45.8%1.7%47.4%
Arizona51.4%1.5%52.9%
Arkansas62.5%1.2%63.8%
California65.4%1.3%66.7%
Colorado62.7%0.8%63.5%
Connecticut68.1%2.9%70.9%
Delaware66.2%1.0%67.2%
District of Columbia53.4%4.5%57.9%
Florida58.8%1.9%60.7%
Georgia70.0%1.6%71.6%
Hawaii62.4%0.2%62.6%
Idaho50.2%1.3%51.5%
Illinois57.4%1.4%58.8%
Indiana65.7%0.7%66.4%
Iowa64.3%1.0%65.3%
Kansas65.4%1.1%66.6%
Kentucky60.9%1.0%61.9%
Louisiana65.3%1.2%66.5%
Maine61.3%1.1%62.5%
Maryland63.0%1.4%64.4%
Massachusetts74.7%1.7%76.4%
Michigan59.9%1.2%61.1%
Minnesota69.2%1.1%70.3%
Mississippi77.4%0.7%78.1%
Missouri60.0%1.1%61.1%
Montana57.5%0.7%58.2%
Nebraska65.5%0.9%66.4%
Nevada55.6%1.8%57.4%
New Hampshire63.9%1.4%65.3%
New Jersey71.2%2.4%73.6%
New Mexico67.7%0.6%68.3%
New York74.2%1.9%76.1%
North Carolina66.0%0.5%66.5%
North Dakota63.8%1.6%65.4%
Ohio62.8%1.2%64.0%
Oklahoma56.0%4.2%60.3%
Oregon46.5%0.9%47.5%
Pennsylvania64.1%1.5%65.6%
Rhode Island67.4%3.2%70.6%
South Carolina69.5%0.7%70.2%
South Dakota72.1%0.6%72.7%
Tennessee61.7%2.8%64.5%
Texas56.9%1.5%58.4%
Utah58.5%1.4%59.9%
Vermont48.3%0.5%48.9%
Virginia68.7%0.6%69.3%
Washington50.8%1.1%51.9%
West Virginia59.0%2.3%61.4%
Wisconsin59.1%0.6%59.7%
Wyoming58.9%0.3%59.2%




US Total63.3%1.4%64.8%


For the non-degree-granting schools, the highest rates are that for the District of Columbia (4.5%), the state of Oklahoma (4.2%) and the state of Rhode Island (3.2%) - all other states are below 3.0%. In 2006, the rate for the District of Columbia was 8.6%, which is way above the rate of all other states.

Chart: % non-degree-granting



Focusing on the degree-granting institutions, it is showed that the public-2-year colleges made the biggest stride to increase the college going rate, it jumped from 17.8% in 2006 to 19.7% in 2008, an increase of 1.9%. Other rate changes include the decrease of 0.4% for the private not-for-profit 4-year colleges and the increase of 0.2% in the private for-profit 4-year sector.

Sector rates by state
State% to Public 4 Year% to Private 4 Yr Not For ProfitTrad. 4 Year% to Private 4 Year For Profit% to Public 2 Year% to Private 2 Year Not For Profit% to Private 2 Year For Profit% to Degree Grntng









Alabama31.5%7.9%39.3%0.8%26.1%0.0%0.4%66.7%
Alaska35.3%6.9%42.2%1.9%1.6%0.0%0.1%45.8%
Arizona21.5%3.3%24.7%1.4%23.6%0.0%1.6%51.4%
Arkansas35.0%6.7%41.6%0.5%20.1%0.0%0.3%62.5%
California22.6%6.7%29.3%1.2%34.1%0.1%0.7%65.4%
Colorado37.6%10.6%48.2%1.6%11.6%0.1%1.1%62.7%
Connecticut23.8%27.7%51.5%1.4%14.8%0.3%0.1%68.1%
Delaware22.4%18.3%40.7%1.1%23.7%0.6%0.2%66.2%
District of Columbia23.7%21.3%45.0%1.9%3.7%0.2%2.7%53.4%
Florida29.4%8.2%37.6%2.9%17.6%0.0%0.7%58.8%
Georgia40.7%9.8%50.5%1.7%16.8%0.5%0.4%70.0%
Hawaii23.2%14.1%37.4%0.8%23.5%0.1%0.5%62.4%
Idaho28.1%9.3%37.4%0.6%11.6%0.1%0.4%50.2%
Illinois23.1%17.8%41.0%1.6%14.2%0.1%0.6%57.4%
Indiana40.1%14.1%54.2%1.8%8.3%0.2%1.2%65.7%
Iowa22.5%15.2%37.7%0.7%25.6%0.1%0.2%64.3%
Kansas32.3%9.0%41.3%0.6%22.9%0.3%0.3%65.4%
Kentucky32.6%11.1%43.7%1.2%14.8%0.0%1.1%60.9%
Louisiana43.2%6.5%49.8%0.6%13.6%0.0%1.2%65.3%
Maine24.5%22.5%47.0%0.6%13.2%0.0%0.5%61.3%
Maryland24.1%16.4%40.5%1.2%20.8%0.1%0.4%63.0%
Massachusetts23.6%33.3%56.9%0.8%16.6%0.1%0.3%74.7%
Michigan30.4%11.4%41.7%0.6%17.2%0.0%0.3%59.9%
Minnesota29.7%16.4%46.1%1.6%20.9%0.0%0.6%69.2%
Mississippi21.0%5.4%26.5%0.5%49.7%0.0%0.8%77.4%
Missouri25.5%12.2%37.7%1.3%19.2%0.9%1.0%60.0%
Montana34.2%9.2%43.4%0.7%12.5%0.6%0.2%57.5%
Nebraska34.2%12.3%46.5%0.9%17.8%0.2%0.2%65.5%
Nevada40.8%5.9%46.8%2.0%5.3%0.1%1.4%55.6%
New Hampshire21.7%25.9%47.6%1.7%14.4%0.1%0.2%63.9%
New Jersey23.9%23.9%47.8%1.7%21.3%0.1%0.3%71.2%
New Mexico33.0%4.0%36.9%0.6%29.5%0.1%0.6%67.7%
New York25.3%25.0%50.4%1.6%21.2%0.2%0.8%74.2%
North Carolina32.8%10.7%43.4%0.9%21.1%0.3%0.4%66.0%
North Dakota42.0%10.1%52.1%0.8%10.4%0.2%0.3%63.8%
Ohio33.2%15.8%49.0%1.0%10.9%0.1%1.9%62.8%
Oklahoma30.6%6.3%36.9%0.6%17.8%0.3%0.4%56.0%
Oregon23.1%10.7%33.8%1.0%11.3%0.0%0.4%46.5%
Pennsylvania28.2%19.9%48.1%1.1%11.3%0.8%2.8%64.1%
Rhode Island23.6%23.6%47.2%0.5%19.7%0.0%0.0%67.4%
South Carolina27.6%14.0%41.7%1.3%25.2%1.1%0.3%69.5%
South Dakota42.3%11.9%54.2%1.1%16.2%0.2%0.4%72.1%
Tennessee30.1%11.9%42.0%1.3%17.6%0.1%0.7%61.7%
Texas27.2%8.4%35.6%0.7%19.6%0.1%0.8%56.9%
Utah34.3%8.9%43.2%1.5%13.2%0.3%0.2%58.5%
Vermont21.3%22.6%43.9%0.5%3.7%0.1%0.1%48.3%
Virginia32.6%12.1%44.6%1.4%22.0%0.1%0.6%68.7%
Washington24.9%10.3%35.2%0.9%14.4%0.0%0.2%50.8%
West Virginia37.2%7.2%44.3%0.7%12.8%0.0%1.2%59.0%
Wisconsin34.4%11.2%45.6%1.1%11.9%0.1%0.4%59.1%
Wyoming23.3%4.3%27.6%0.6%29.7%0.1%0.9%58.9%









US Total28.3%13.2%41.5%1.2%19.7%0.2%0.8%63.3%

Comparing rates between sectors, it is clear that United States sent most (41.5%) of their high school graduates to the traditional 4 year colleges, defined as the joint group of public 4-year schools and the private not-for-profit 4-year schools. The public 2-year schools take the next big share of 19.7% in 2008 with the rest of the sectors made up for the remaining 2.1%. However, even though this general observation is true for most states, the true rates vary by states.

To obtain an overall picture, it is helpful to put states in categories prescribed by the fraction of college going students that went to the public 2-year institutions. In doing so, most states are having rates below 40%, while few states stand out with large fraction of their students went to the 2-year public schools. Among these states are: Mississippi(64%), California(52%), Wyoming(50%) and Arizona(46%).

Chart: % 2-year public in all that going


Comparing with 2006, there are two states that have significantly increased the fraction of their public 2-year college going students. These two states are Arizona, which send additional 5,875 students to 2-year public schools to increase the rate from 37% to 46%, and California, which send additional 51,792 students to 2-year public school and increased its rate from 42% to 52%.

For completeness, it is also worth to note that Alaska(3%), District of Columbia(7%), Vermont(8%) and Nevada(10%) sent very few of their high school graduates to 2-year-public institutions.

To finish up, we present a chart of of the overall degree-granting college going rate by state and by sector.

Monday, August 16, 2010

College Going Rates by State - 2008 Early Release

CL Higher Education Center

Related blogs:
College going rates by state 2008 analysis
2006: College Going Rates by State - an Analysis
Estimated US College Going Rates by State - 2005-06

CL Higher Education Center just released the Early Release of the 'estimated US College Going Rates by State for 2007-08 High School Graduates'.

The analysis is based on the 2007-08 Common Core Data (CCD) survey, the 2006-07 Private School Survey (PSS) and the 2008-09 Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS) migration survey managed by the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) of the Department of Education (USDE).

The CCD and PSS survey is used to estimate the number of high school graduates from a state. The IPEDS migration survey provide the information of how many of those students went to colleges. Since PSS is collected every two year and the number of graduates collected by the 2007-08 PSS is that of 2006-07 academic year. By assuming that 2006-07 number is a good estimate for the 2007-08 number, we can add it to the number of public high school graduates collected by the CCD to produce the total number of high school graduates for a state.

This data release also include a file with some analysis results and charts.

State2008 Normal HS Graduates2008 Dgr-Grntng Total2008 % to Dgr-Grntng Total2008 Rank2006 Rank






Mississippi28,15021,78777.4%11
Massachusetts75,63256,48074.7%25
New York206,201153,07274.2%32
South Dakota9,1386,58772.1%44
New Jersey108,33877,10471.2%59
Georgia91,07963,74470.0%611
South Carolina38,85126,99569.5%76
Minnesota65,33945,24569.2%810
Virginia84,28257,89668.7%912
Connecticut46,41231,59668.1%108
New Mexico19,75913,37767.7%117
Rhode Island11,9298,04367.4%1244
Alabama45,92230,63866.7%1325
Delaware9,1856,08366.2%1421
North Carolina88,90158,68166.0%1516
Indiana66,68943,81565.7%1623
Nebraska22,19114,53765.5%1720
Kansas33,11521,66765.4%1814
California409,439267,83565.4%1941
Louisiana41,93227,36465.3%2015
Iowa36,83423,68664.3%2127
Pennsylvania147,77594,78964.1%2226
New Hampshire17,27611,03863.9%2318
North Dakota7,4204,73263.8%243
Maryland68,62543,22763.0%2513
Ohio133,81584,03062.8%2632
Colorado48,60630,46162.7%2724
Arkansas30,10418,82162.5%2840
Hawaii13,9988,72862.4%2933
Tennessee63,37539,07361.7%3022
Maine15,8079,69661.3%3119
Kentucky43,36726,42660.9%3228
Missouri69,04741,44660.0%3338
Michigan123,70574,13459.9%3417
Wisconsin70,60941,74159.1%3529
West Virginia18,09410,68459.0%3637
Wyoming5,5443,26658.9%3735
Florida167,62998,64858.8%3831
Utah29,51817,25958.5%3948
Montana10,9176,27557.5%4036
Illinois150,24886,29057.4%4130
Texas264,044150,20656.9%4243
Oklahoma39,66322,21556.0%4334
Nevada17,8449,91755.6%4445
District of Columbia5,0172,68053.4%4539
Arizona64,26033,02551.4%4651
Washington66,19033,61050.8%4746
Idaho17,1228,59150.2%4850
Vermont9,1514,42348.3%4942
Oregon37,76317,57646.5%5047
Alaska8,0533,68545.8%5149


Exam the ranking, the first surprise is the North Dakota, which drop from number 3 to number 24. A closer look at the data, the main drop on college enrollment occurred at 'North Dakota State College of Science'. The enrollment of recent North Dakota high school graduates dropped from 331 to 88. Also the 'Bismarck State College' seems to switch from public-2-year to the public-4-year sector with a drop in enrollment of recent North Dakota high school graduates from 554 to 297.

Rounding up the top 10, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Georgia, Minnesota and Virginia had moved up to number 2, 5, 6, 8 and 9 respectively.

For the second group of 10 states, Rhode Island and California showed the most improvements. For Rhode Island, a single entity: 'Community College of Rhode Island' reports a gain of about 1,400 enrollments from 826 to 2,251. For California, the gains are across the board: about 4,000 in the public-4-year sector, 1,000 in the private-not-for-profit-4-year sector, 800 in the private-for-profit-4-year sector, a whopping 52,000 in the public-2-year sector.

In this second tier, Rhode Island, Alabama, Delaware, North Carolina, Indiana, Nebraska, and California had moved up.