College Enrollment

 

High School Graduates Enrolled in College

• In 2000, more than half (53.4%) of all young (14-to-24-year-old) black men, and two-thirds of all young black women (67.3%) who had graduated from high school also had gone on to enroll in or complete college.  The year 2000 witnessed the highest recorded college enrollment and completion rate (67.3%) for young black women with high school diplomas, a rate that exceeded the rate for young white men (64.5%).  In contrast, the college enrollment and completion rate for young black male high school graduates in 2000 (53.4%) was lower than in any year since 1993 (50.7%).

• Young white men (65.4%) and women (72.5%) who completed high school were much more likely than their African American counterparts to have enrolled in or completed college in 2000.  However, these gaps were only half as large as in 1991, and reflect the substantial educational gains that African Americans made during the decade.

• Racial gaps in college enrollment and completion narrowed during several periods only to widen again. In 1967, young black male (42%) and female (33%) high school graduates were about a third less likely than their white counterparts (60% and 46%) to have enrolled in or completed college. But by 1976, young black men and women (both 50%) had virtually closed the gap with white women (51%), and approached the percentages for white men (56%) which had declined from a peak of 63% in 1969. The rates for blacks declined to about 42% for men and 46% for women in 1981, and did not increase consistently again until 1991, while those for white women increased steadily after 1981 and those for white men increased after 1987.

• From 1991 to 1993, slightly higher percentages of young Hispanic than of young black high school graduates attended or had completed college, but their percentages in 1994 were slightly lower. By 2000, young black female high school graduates (67.3%) were more likely to have enrolled in or completed college than comparable Hispanics (55.2 percent).

-Sources: United States Census Bureau

Undergraduates Enrolled in Four-Year Institutions

• Black high school graduates in the 1990s were much more likely to have entered or completed college than in the mid-1970s.  However, they remained less likely than white undergraduates to be enrolled in four-year rather than two-year institutions (58.6 percent vs. 64.2 percent in 1999).

• The percentage of African American undergraduates enrolled in four-year institutions remained relatively stable (at 57-58%) between 1976 and 1999, but for whites the percentage declined from 66.1% in 1976 to 64.2% in 1999. The gap between the two groups therefore narrowed slightly, and it is much smaller than the gaps between white students and American Indian (50.4 percent) and Hispanic (44.1 percent) students. Asian undergraduates (60.8%) were more likely than blacks, but less likely than whites, to attend four-year institutions.

 

Historically Black Colleges and Universities

• Enrollment at the 103 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) rose by 17.4% between 1980 and 1999, but virtually all the increase occurred after 1986.  Total enrollment reached 278,725 in 1995, but then dropped slightly by 1999 (274,212).

• About 27.2% of African Americans who earned bachelor's degrees in 2000 did so at HBCUs. This was down from about 35% in 1977. HBCUs produced about 18.8% of African Americans who earned master's degrees in 2000, and 28.4% of those earning first-professional degrees, compared to about 22% for each in 1977.  In contrast, only 3% of African Americans who earned doctorates in 1977 did so at HBCUs, but this grew to 14.7% in 2000.

• About 27.2% of African Americans who earned bachelor's degrees in 2000 did so at HBCUs. This was down from about 35% in 1977. HBCUs produced about 18.8% of African Americans who earned master's degrees in 2000, and 28.4% of those earning first-professional degrees, compared to about 22% for each in 1977.  In contrast, only 3% of African Americans who earned doctorates in 1977 did so at HBCUs, but this grew to 14.7% in 2000.

 

College Completion

• Among adults ages 25 and older in 2002, 16.5% of black men and 17.7% of black women held bachelor’s degrees.  This compares to 31.7% of white men and 27.3% of white women.  Among Hispanic adults in 2002, 11% of men and 11.2% of women completed college.

• The percentage of African American men with a bachelor’s degree or more in 2002 was over 3.5 times the percentage (4.5%) in 1964, and the 2002 percentage for African American women was more than 5 times higher than in 1964 (3.4%).  These substantial gains helped African American adults to reduce differences between their college completion rates and those of whites.  In 1964, white men were 2.7 times more likely than African American men to hold a bachelor’s degree.  By 2002, they were only twice as likely to do so.   Similarly, in 1964 the percentage of white women with college degrees was twice that for black women.  This ratio had fallen to 1.5 times more likely by 2002.

• The percentage of college graduates has risen more slowly for Hispanic adults 25 years old and over.  In 1974 (the first year for which these statistics are available) 7.1% of Hispanic men and 4% of Hispanic women had completed college.  This grew to 11% of men and 11.2% of women by 2002, an average annual increase of 1.6%.  By comparison, the college completion rate for blacks grew by about 3.8% per annum between 1974 and 2002.

• The percentage of African American women 25 years old and older who have completed college has exceeded the percentage for African American men in most years since 1991.   In the 25-29-year-old age group, however, the percentage of women with college degrees exceeds those for men among whites and Hispanics as well, suggesting that the pattern among African Americans is part of a broader trend in which women are completing college at higher rates than men.

• Relatively small percentages of adults had advanced degrees in 2000.  African Americans  (4.6%) and Hispanics (3.1%) were only one-half and one-third as likely to hold advanced degrees as whites  (9.1%). The percentages of African Americans (3.7%) and Hispanics (1.9%) with masters degrees represented also represented approximately one-half and one-third, respectively of the percentages of whites with a Masters degree  (6.2%) in 2000.   Whites were more than twice as likely as blacks and Hispanics to have professional degrees (1.6% vs. 0.6% and 0.7%), and doctorates (1.3% vs. 0.3% and 0.5%).

 

References

Digest of Educational Statistics, 2001.  Highest Level of Education Attained by Persons Age 18 and Over, by Age, Sex and Race/Ethnicity: March  2000. www.nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/digest2001/tables/dt009.asp

United States Census Bureau.  Percent of People 25 Years Old and Over Who Have Completed High School or College By Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex, Selected Years 1940 to 2002.  http://www/census.gov/population/socdemo/education/tabA-2.

Prepared by Cassandra Cantave and Roderick Harrison for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Updated August 2003.