sue, here is some information of where folks are going for post secondary education. If my memory is correct from an article in Athens paper, only 22% of those attending 2 year colleges get a degree. Also, the success rate for profit colleges such as U of Phoenix is not high and costs are extreme and they are being severely looked at by Congress.
Larry

As a college consultant, I am surprised to see the breakdown in students and where they are attending college. I think this gives us a much better perspective on college admissions and a better understanding of the students themselves.

Susie Watts
Denver, Colorado

Here's a question: If for-profit colleges are so wonderful, why don't any rich people go there? After all, for them, money is not much of a consideration. If it wasn't for federally backed student loans (which default almost half the time), the whole for-profit system would collapse.

Hey Number 2. If you're a college consultant, shouldn't you have already known these relatively unsurprising figures?

Data clearly shows that students are willing to take the safer route by attending a public 2-year community college despite the popularity of online institutions. While Univ. of Phoenix might have a pricey tuition price tag, statistics are clear that people are willing to do anything at their leisure while attending college, therefore “online” is the route people are willing to attend.
The generation that we are living is fast, simple, and data generated and as a result online institutions have been the chosen college relatively because of its easy admissions policy.

With regard to the category RACE, it seems to me that a more revealing statistic would be what proportion of the white/black/Hispanic population makes up the student body. This would help us understand how well (or poorly) the various ethnic groups in the U.S. are being educated for the future. To the extent that one ethnic (or, for that matter, income and class) group is not being educated as well as another, our educational system is not providing a pathway to a just and equitable society and not serving to help our society profit from the abilities and talents in the underserved groups, that is both their and our loss. It also feeds future social discord and disruption.

Nifty graphic (and yes, unsurprising numbers, at least for me) but this short article is not a good tool for knowing what to expect on the ground because this is a giant aggregate, and the categories are not evenly dispersed to any given setting. So, for age and income and attendance (and somewhat for race and gender), going to any particular institution would probably not result in seeing this profile. In practice, institutions and/or students tend to behave such that the demographics cluster (e.g. one place will have mostly traditional age students, one place will have mostly adult commuters, but the national totals will result in the numbers above.)

While I think this is one of the better interactive graphics I have seen on college enrollment, it doesn't tell the whole story. If degree level is considered instead of college type, you would see the percentage of students pursuing an associate degree at public colleges to count for over 50% of the college going population as an unappreciated percentage attends comprehensive 4-year colleges. Include certificate degree seekers at all public colleges and the number pursuing a baccalaureate degree anywhere will pale in comparison.

Sam Michlalowski
Director of Institutional Research and Assessment
College of Staten Island CUNY

I appreciate this accurate picture of who is attending college as it does help to bust the myths about who is enrolled today. However, thumbs down to the Chronicle for reinforcing the stereotype that partying hard is the norm (in their introduction) but then not offering any data to correct that misperception.

The Core Survey on Alcohol and other Drugs, ACHA's National College Health Assessment and numerous peer-reviewed studies show time and again that the majority of traditionally aged college students consume at a moderate or lower risk level, with a growing number non-drinkers. I encourage the Chronicle to refrain from stereotyping alcohol consumption, even in these subtle ways, and to see a story digging into that data as well.

The first thing I notice is that almost half of all students nationwide have a family income that is below the federal poverty level.

The other thing I notice is that public research 4-years and private lib arts/research 4-years are, despite their decades of rhetoric about diversity and acessibility/affordability, doing a lousy job of serving minority, poor, and non-traditional students. That is the void that the for-profits have stepped in and filled, whether you like that or not.

#10, federal poverty level depends on family size, so you can't conclude anything about the number of students in poverty.

#5 - You don't have to go to University of Phoenix to be an online student. Almost every college offers online courses for most, if not all classes. Our public, reasonably-priced institution offers a multitude of excellent online courses.

Looks like for profits are serving the poor and those over the age of 24 in greater numbers than any other category

Interesting how many commenters can't distinguish between:

a. community colleges
b. for-profit institutions
c. online course offerings

These are, amazingly enough, not all the same thing. Except to some people in traditional four-year institutions who just see everything else as "the enemy."

Kudos to #10, especially second paragraph. What's especially rich, so to speak, is to read what a great effort toward inclusion "elite" institutions are making. You can be inclusive, or you can be elite. You can't be both unless inclusion means admitting academically uncompetitive members of the right families. Doubtless protecting these hothouse blossoms from friction caused by the real world has some value, for somebody.

What is a 4 year research and liberal arts institution compared to other private institutions. How about using the Carnegie classifications to make this data relevant to other data that has been collected

I am sorry, but I hate this chart-junk graphic! It provides a whole lot less information than you might originally think. Each is actually a very simple bar chart with all bars adding up to 100%. There is nothing here that suprised me - I'm fairly aware of the basic stats. What I think would have been more interesting is to have a second-tier analysis, e.g., what percent of high school grads who are white attend college? Hispanic? Latino? women? men? low-income families? high-income families? (etc.)

While it may seem that for-profits are serving a large number of students that are below the poverty line, please remember that sometimes they aren't getting the best service, which can lead to a number of them not completing a degree. In fact, I'd be highly interested in seeing numbers in that regard. I advise at a for-profit (attended a 4-yr public research for undergrad) and the differences are HUGE in terms of how students are advised in regard to choosing courses, staying on track, etc. My current position treats students very much like customers, which is very hard to deal with in respect to retention. But at my alma mater, much care was taken to discuss with students their courses, their future careers, etc. So again, for-profits might be enrolling more students in various segments, but that doesn't mean they are really ensuring students graduate and/or have the best academic career while there.

Our 4-year public research university has 31 degrees available at a distance - most delivered online. Today's campus student wants many of the same things distance students want - effective technology in the classroom, faculty who understand how to make lectures interesting and how to use media, and ways to access materials online 24x7. The limiting factor is faculty who only want to write on a whiteboard and then jet out of the classroom.

Too bad the figures by race and by gender are not separated out such as African-American males and African-American females. the data are actually collected but not reported. Several years ago, the data used to be reported by race by sex. This is true of most of the federal data on students and faculty as well as on data often collected by American Council on Education.

It is interesting to me that almost a quarter of all undergrads are 30 or over. I think that group self-selects to get the degree based on their experience with the work world. I think that's a validation of the value of the college education.

I got a bachelor's degree, but years later I went back to school and got just a few hours of credit in Computer Information Systems ... from a community college. I wasn't thinking I needed the associate degree as I already had a bachelor. Would I be counted as community college dropout? If people like me are counted as community college dropouts that might in part explain why the community college dropout rate is so high.

Bernard Schuster
Arrive2.net
Twitter.com/arrive2_net