SEARCH TODAY'S NEWS ARCHIVES

Half a Million Top-Scoring Students Fail to Complete College Degrees Every Year

By Joelle Fredman, Communications Staff

Every year, 500,000 students at the top of their high school classes fail to complete a college degree. Almost all of these students, which comprise one-third of the top-performing students nationwide, have dropped out of college and leave with loan debt and no credential, according to new research from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW).

The study, The Forgotten 500,000 College-Ready Students, found that these half a million students have the potential to graduate at a rate of more than 80 percent at selective institutions. CEW recommended that by designating an average of $5,000 for each of these students in support counseling, higher education officials can ensure that they complete degrees. It suggested that institutions use those funds to offer financial and academic counseling, expose students to work opportunities, and ensure an easy transfer of credit between schools.

Not only does earning a degree boost a student’s income, but the broader community gains from program completion as well. If each of these students earned a bachelor’s degree, they would boost the economy by $400 billion, according to the report. If this trend continues, however, the nation will lose five million college-ready students over the next 10 years, which is almost half of the projected 11 million shortfall of educated workers needed over the next decade to stabilize the american workforce.

“We can’t continue to overlook this talent drain,” CEW Director Anthony P. Carnevale said. “The loss of individual opportunity, productivity, and overall competitiveness of the American workforce hurts us tremendously.”

The study also found that of the group of 500,000 college-ready students, almost half are low-income, and that 69 percent are white, 8 percent are black, and 13 percent are Latino.

 

Publication Date: 1/18/2018


You must be logged in to comment on this page.

Comments Disclaimer: NASFAA welcomes and encourages readers to comment and engage in respectful conversation about the content posted here. We value thoughtful, polite, and concise comments that reflect a variety of views. Comments are not moderated by NASFAA but are reviewed periodically by staff. Users should not expect real-time responses from NASFAA. To learn more, please view NASFAA’s complete Comments Policy.
View Desktop Version