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class=timestamp><FONT face=Arial><A
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/education/30college.html?hpw=&pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/education/30college.html?hpw=&pagewanted=print</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 15px; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-WEIGHT: bold"
class=timestamp><FONT face=Arial>New York Times</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 15px; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-WEIGHT: bold"
class=timestamp>October 30, 2009</DIV>
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style="TEXT-TRANSFORM: uppercase; MARGIN-TOP: 15px; COLOR: rgb(102,102,102); FONT-WEIGHT: bold"
class=kicker></DIV>
<H1 style="MARGIN-TOP: 3px; FONT-SIZE: 24px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><NYT_HEADLINE
type=" " version="1.0">College Enrollment Set Record in
2008</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE type=" " version="1.0">
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class=byline>By<SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><A style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,102)"
title="More Articles by Tamar Lewin"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/tamar_lewin/index.html?inline=nyt-per">TAMAR
LEWIN</A></DIV></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">Almost 40 percent
of the nation’s 18- to 24-year-olds in 2008 were enrolled in college, a record
number, according to a<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><A
style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,102)" title="More articles about Pew Research Center"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/p/pew_research_center/index.html?inline=nyt-org">Pew
Research Center</A><SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><A
style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,102)" title="Summary of the report."
href="http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1391/college-enrollment-all-time-high-community-college-surge">report</A><SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>released on Thursday.</P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">The rise was
driven almost entirely by a surge in students attending<SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><A style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,102)"
title="More articles about community colleges."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/community_colleges/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">community
colleges</A>.</P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">“We have
anecdotally got this sense that there’s been this college enrollment boom,” said
Richard Fry, a senior research associate at the Pew center who wrote the report,
“but now we’ve got confirmation, and we know that at least among young adults,
the increase seems to be a two-year college phenomenon.”</P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">“What’s behind
this,” Mr. Fry added, “is that we have the biggest pool of young adults we’ve
ever had who’ve finished high school.”</P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">The previous
record for college enrollment among 18- to 24-year-olds was 38.9 percent in
2005.</P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">The new report,
using data from the<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><A
style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,102)" title="More articles about Census Bureau, U.S."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/census_bureau/index.html?inline=nyt-org">Census
Bureau</A>’s<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><A
style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,102)" title="Web page for population survey."
href="http://www.census.gov/cps/">Current Population Survey</A>, found that a
record 84.9 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds had completed high school as of
October 2008, up a full percentage point from the previous year.</P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">The percentage of
high school dropouts, meanwhile, has been declining. In October 2008, 9.3
percent of 18- to 24-year-olds had dropped out of school, compared with 10.2
percent in 2007.</P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">“The high school
completion numbers are somewhat startling, since they fly in the face of the
very negative impression people have gotten about dropouts,” Mr. Fry said.</P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">Although solid
numbers for this year’s college enrollment are not yet available, the Pew report
said that early estimates in the Census Bureau’s September 2009 Current
Population Survey hinted that the record 2008 number might be surpassed.</P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">The census data on
which the report is based has, however, an optimistic skew. Because it includes
only the noninstitutionalized civilian population, and since prisoners are
especially likely to be high school dropouts, the overall dropout rates among
Americans 18 to 24 are probably higher than reported, and college enrollment
rates somewhat lower.</P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">The Census Bureau
is expected to release its own analysis of the October 2008 college enrollment
data next week.</P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">With the
recession, which officially began in December 2007, the young adults’ steepest
drop was in employment. Only 50.4 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds were employed
in October 2008, compared with 52.7 percent in 2007.</P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">While the
year-to-year changes are not huge, the longer-term trends show significant
shifts. In 1973, only 24 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds were enrolled in
college, only 80.7 had completed high school, and 15.7 had dropped out of high
school.</P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">Enrollment has
been rising at two- and four-year colleges alike for decades. And most young
adults still prefer four-year colleges, even though they are more expensive.</P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">But the increase
in the rate of students going to college reflected in the Pew report was
attributable almost entirely to increased community-college enrollment. About
3.4 million, or 11.8 percent, of young adults were enrolled at community
colleges, up from 3.1 million, or 10.9 percent, in 2007.</P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">Enrollment at
four-year colleges was essentially flat, at about eight million, or 27.8
percent<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>of young adults, the Pew
report said.</P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 24px; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: medium">College enrollment
varies by race and ethnicity. Nearly 41 percent of white 18- to 24-year-olds
were enrolled in college in 2008, compared with about 32 percent of black young
adults and 26 percent of Hispanics in that age
group.</P></DIV></NYT_TEXT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML>