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Subscribe to RSSYoung adults are making modest gains in college completion, but fall short of President Barack Obama’s goal of having the U.S. tops in the world in the percentage of college graduates, according to government figures.
Data released by the U.S. Department of Education showed 39.3 percent of young adults (ages 25 to 34) in the country had earned an associate, bachelor's or graduate degree in 2010, a half-percentage point increase from the previous year.
Figures were released ahead of Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s address to the National Governor’s Association in Williamsburg, Va., on Friday.
Duncan will call on governors and colleges and universities to rein in spiraling college tuition costs, one of the roadblocks to earning a degree, according to prepared remarks.
"We've made some progress, but the combination of deep state budget cuts and rising tuition prices is pushing an affordable college education out of reach for middle-class families," Duncan says in the remarks. "As the president has said, the countries that out-educate today will out-compete us tomorrow. The federal government has done a tremendous amount to increase the amount of aid available to students. But we need states and institutions to meet us halfway by doing more to keep college costs down."
Cost of tuition at four-year public universities jumped by 15 percent between 2008 and 2010, a rise fueled by state funding cuts, according to the department. The department also cites 40 states as having to slash higher education spending in the last year.
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Reviewing the government's state-by-state figures, Montana claimed the biggest percentage increase in young college graduates, rising from 37.1 percent in 2009 to 40.3 percent in 2010.
According to The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education-news outlet, Montana mines its success with a no-nonsense approach:
Montana started its push to churn out more degree-holders by bolstering its system of two-year colleges. Like other states, it had to overcome perceptions that two-year colleges are little more than trade schools for students whose grades aren’t good enough to go to four-year universities — a matter made worse in Montana, where many of them were, in fact, vocational high schools before being transformed, in the mid-1990s, into so-called “colleges of technology.”
In Montana, small changes spur nation's biggest jump in college graduates
Washington D.C. had the highest percentage in 2010 on the list, 68.8 percent. The state with the highest percentage was Massachusetts, with 54.3 percent, unchanged from the year before, however.
Obama wants the U.S. to lead the world in the proportion of college graduates by the year 2020.
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The United States ranks 16th in the world, trailing South Korea, Canada, Japan and Russia, according to The Associated Press, citing a 2011 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The AP reports:
To meet the president's goal, an estimated 10 million more Americans ages 25 to 34 will need to earn a two- or four-year degree.
The data released Thursday shows most states will need to make dramatic leaps in order to meet the goal of having 60 percent of the nation's young adults with a college degree.
In Florida, there were 816,946 adults ages 25 to 34 with a post-secondary degree. That number will need to increase to at least 1.48 million. In New York, the number will need to rise from 1.3 million to 1.67 million.
See the U.S. Department of Education's complete state-by-state rankings in college attainment
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Whoopee do, college completion levels are up modestly.
I'd really like to see which fields we are gaining in. You know, the ones that will improve the economy through innovation, aka STEM.
It's NONE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S BUSINESS WHO DOES AND DOESN'T GRADUATE FROM COLLEGE!! Good Grief, they're paying for it...right??!!!! (oops maybe we on the stick here)
Completion is nice... but I think what most of those students are concerned about... will it land them a better job and put them in a more favorable financial situation if they didn't go in the first place.... Alot of these students are walking out with piece of paper that cost them 4+ years and 50k+ with nothing else to show for it.
I read in a couple of places the average college debt is $24K, which is basically a new car, but yes, a degree in basket weaving is going to make it hard to pay even that back.
It's not up to the federal or state govts to use taxpayer money to pay these ridiculous tuition and book fees. They've been enabling out-of-control spending by 4-yr institutions for decades and what has it gotten us? Outrageous fees few can afford. Colleges charge a fortune because they can, because the govt will find a way to pay them.
Like heath care, the emphasis should be on reducing fees, not finding ways to finance ever-increasing ones.
I pay $1,000/ month. I went to private school where they told me (its ok if you don't know what your major is going to be, just choose one and you can always change your mind, well I took 3 semesters of nursing courses and then switched to accounting, the 5th year cost me and additional $40,000 (w/ housing) that I had to take out in private loans because my scholarship/FAFSA ran out.
First 4 yrs = 50k, one extra yr= $40,000k. Grand total= 90K. (Something around $120k w/ interest at this point)
My fault for not knowing what I wanted to do with the rest of my life at age 17. I am so stupid. I know. Is all my fault.
Now who do we blame for the fact an entire generation of kids comes out of school with unmanagable debt? Earnings barely cover payments & living expenses, private student lenders do not work with you to help spread out payments and are not requried to offer income based repayment options, you cannot bankrupt them, if I drop dead tomorrow my cosigners will still be responsbile for repayment (Federal loans are forgiven if student borrower dies before finishing payments), and basically a person like me is out of the free market: I don't shop for clothes, I can't afford a new car, I can't save anything so that maybe I can put a down payment on a condo or something in the near future (forget about retirement or IRA contributions), what about maybe investing? Start a company (I would, but I'm broke), vacation? Go out to eat, maybe a drink (thank god I'm a girl and guys still pay, but they are broke too)...hmmm what to do now? I know I am not the only one in this predicament? What happens to our generation? Will we just live paycheck to paycheck until we drop dead? (I'm sure retirement age will be like 90 by then). Before putting more people through college and worrying about the rising costs, people should worry about people like me who are unable to contribute anything to the economy or productivity of this great nation. God Bless America.
ananymous-2485126
- NEVER borrow money you can't pay back. DON'T spend money that lands in your lap for no appearant reason.
ananymous-2485126 - I am in the same boat as you. Around $90,000 in student loan debt. Jobs in my field were plentiful when I went into school, and by the time I graduated, they were gone. The next 'bubble' is going to be student loan debt. We can't contribute to the economy unless we are able to get appropriate jobs in our fields. Until then, we're getting our clothes at Goodwill and taking the bus.
justoneguy - Did you not read the part about how the poster was 17 when she started college and wasn't sure what she wanted to do for her major? Yes, she's not blameless, but there's so much pressure put on high school students to go to college at ANY cost, that it's hard at that age to say 'no' to your teachers, guidance counselors, and parents when they all want you to go to college. Hindsight is 20/20, especially as an adult looking back on your teenage years.
I don't know why everyone is pushing the idea that "You need to go to college after high schoool or join the Army". It's for some people but not for all people. I went to college for two years and dropped out when I found a job that I wanted. It's the biggest waste of money going to school when you're not sure what you want to do for a living. I spent almost $20,000.00 and 2 years of my life to realize that's not what I wanted to do for a living. I found a career that I love and that has nothing to do for what I went to school for but it took me between 7-8 years to payoff that 2 years at $200 + a month.
Unless you are going to school to learn an actual skill (Nursing, Accounting, Finance, etc) you really shouldn't be going to school. Certain majors should not even exist (Marketing, Management, English) as these are skills that either a.) should be developed in high school b.) are easily trainable/teachable on the job c.)you are born with these skills or can perfect them with a few classes. I spent 5 years in undergrad getting an Accounting degree and wasting time on stupid phylosophy classes and other "core" requirements, which took away time I could have focused on my major classes. I can read philosophy books and take courses such as that for personal enrichment on my own time, if I want to. Big Four CPA firms don't give a rats behind if I read Bentham or spent $200 on a required art kit just to compelete my art requirement.
I would like to see high school kids graduate and get out into the real world to get a handle on what they might like to do with their lives. How can you do that when you're 16 or 17 years old? THEN go to college if you need to. Indecision costs money and it happens all the time when someone is too young to know what they want to do. There used to be a thing called "apprenticeships" but I think that went by the way of the dinos.
No college graduate should have to start their career life with a 50,000 or more weight around their neck.
Nobody is forcing you to Doug.
So...you see no problem and you are ok with students starting their careers being tens of thousands in the red? Ok, Gotcha
justoneguy - Sure, no one is 'forcing' anyone to go to college, but good luck getting a job as a doctor, or engineer, or in any science field without a degree. College isn't something dirty that we should be discouraging kids from pursuing, or a luxury only the rich should be able to attend. It's an education, and it's a shame that students, in order to go to college, must get into loan debt.
Maybe the government should stop rewarding failure. Anyone with a single digit ACT score can get grants and guaranteed/subsidized student loans. Maybe if financial aid was granted according to performance more students would be prepared for college and succeed. It is time we quit throwing money away for the sake of quantity of students and start addressing quality issues. I also wonder how non-occupational courses such as biology for finance majors makes any sense. I had a couple more hours of arts and science courses than I did business, finance and economics courses. I never did figure out how a course on Architectural Lecture looking at a bunch of unusual looking buildings from all over the world helped me in my banking career! College needs to be practical learning not just knowledge for the sake of knowledge.
I went to college when I graduated high school in 1986, but two years later found out I couldn't have kids and dropped out, so what was the point? I was only going to support myself. Less than a quarter of my fellow student body went on to complete any sort of secondary schooling, at the time we didn't need to.
Well, 10 years later I had a son, and a 'job' which I was making killer money in, but several years later watched the market go into the toilet, got laid off and couldn't find a decent job making a living. I HAD to go back and finish college and obtain a 'career' instead of a 'job', just to survive.
Bravo to all of you who can make it without a formal education, but frankly, nowadays, that's very rare.
Even worse is that a bachelor's degree nowadays is becoming useless when it comes to getting a job. A master's is the new bachelor's.