Chart of the Week: Grants and Loans by Class Level

For today's Chart of the Week, we take a look at undergraduate grant aid and loans (for 2008) by undergraduate class level, as reported in the Dept. of Ed's Data Analysis System. As this chart shows, the average freshman and sophomore receive the lowest amount of grant aid but also take out, on average, smaller loans than upperclassmen. While juniors and fourth year seniors receive the most generous grant aid, fifth year seniors have the greatest disparity between the grant aid they receive and the loans they take out, suggesting that fifth year seniors rely more heavily upon loans for financing college than other undergraduate students.

Chart of the Week: College Enrollment Growth

by Daniel L. Bennett



To start off 2011, CCAP brings you two charts of the week, although they do go hand in hand. The first shows the growth in college enrollments by institutional control. The data represent decennial periods beginning in fall 1869. College enrollment grew from around 52,000 in 1869 to 238,000 by 1899. By 1939, enrollments soared to nearly 1.5 million - prior to the federal government offering student financial assistance, which began with the 1944 GI Bill. By 1969, enrollment topped 8 million, and is approaching 20 million today.


While the first chart shows the absolute growth in enrollment, the second chart shows the growth rate (percentage change) of college enrollments by decade since 1869. As can be seen, the growth rate of college enrollment grew steadily prior to the start of the Great Depression, with growth rates resuming as WWI winded down. The GI Bill likely had a significant impact in providing many returning veterans with financial support to attend college. The growth rate would subside in the following decade, but would resume explosive growth between 1959 and 1969. This likely had a lot to do with passage of the 1965 Higher Education Act, which marked the beginning of the federal government's financial aid system. The growth rate has declined each decade since then, with the exception of the most recent decade in which enrollment growth has resumed.

Chart of the Week: Convergenge in Educational Attainment of Family Heads

by Daniel L. Bennett

As the chart below shows, the percentage of household heads (25+ years of age) with 4+ years of college education has risen steadily since the early 1960s (nearly tripling - a 176% increase - between 1963 and 2009). In the meantime, the percentage with a high school education or less has dropped steadily (nearly cut in half - a 49% decrease - since 1963). These data reveal a convergence in the educational attainment levels of family heads over time. We will explore the implications of these trends in future research.

Chart of the Week: Degree Granting Institutions

This week CCAP examines how the number of degree granting institutions has increased during the last thirty-five years. Including branch campuses, in 1975 there were approximately 3,000 schools. By 2008 the number had grown to over 4,400.

Chart of the Week: Percentage Receiving Financial Aid

This week, CCAP looks at the increasing percentage of full-time undergraduate students receiving any type of financial aid. The 2009 Digest of Education Statistics has limited annual data on this, but between 1993 and 2008, the percentage of of students receiving financial aid rose over 18 percentage points.

Our 10/21/10 Chart of the Week

Over at the Quick and the Ed blog (a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in higher education policy), Forrest Hinton chastises us for a "Chart of the Week" we posted a while back.

We think some of the accusations are off base. For example, the charge that we cherry picked the data is incorrect. The time frame we used for the chart was based solely upon the availability of data. In particular, 1969-1970 is the first year for which the Digest of Education Statistics table reported continuous data on the number of degrees conferred (making it the natural year to select as a start point), and 2007-2008 was the last year with non-projected numbers. Similarly, to date, we have not located any unemployment rate data prior to 1970 specifically for holders of bachelor's degrees (if anyone knows where earlier data may exist, we would love to have access to it).

However, upon rereading the post, we agree with Hinton’s main point that the wording of the post can be mis-interpreted (though what we meant was not misleading). In particular, the statement

In light of this evidence, one must question the sensibility of policy goals that seek to substantially further increase the proportion of Americans with college degrees.

could be read as arguing that more graduates cause more unemployment and that therefore we shouldn’t send more students to college. This is not what we were trying to convey, either implicitly or explicitly.

What we meant to convey with the chart (a meaning which is clear when viewed within the context of two blogs of the same vintage, one originally on our own blog, the other originally on the Chronicle's "Innovations" blog) was that a college degree used to be a much better guarantee of getting a good job and generally kept graduates from being unemployed. Now, however, college graduates are increasingly struggling to find jobs, and too many of those who do find jobs wind up in ones which don’t require a degree.

In this context, the above statement is not misleading, as the employment prospects of graduates is a relevant (though by no means a decisive) counter-point to the proposed policy goal of increasing the proportion of college graduates. But viewed in isolation, the post could too easily be misread, and we regret any confusion this may have caused.

Chart of the Week: The Increase in Undergraduates Receiving Federal Loans

This week we take a look at what has happened to the number of undergraduate students receiving federal Stafford loan aid between 1999 and 2009. We see that the number of annual recipients increased by 75 percent during this time, going from 4.15 million just over a decade ago to nearly 7.3 million students last year, an indication that students are relying more and more on federal loan programs to pay for college.

Chart of the Week: Degrees, Unemployment and Population

The number of degrees conferred (bachelor's, master's and doctoral/professional) more than doubled between 1970 and 2008. However, the unemployment rate of these individuals exactly doubled during this time. Both of these increases were far greater than the overall rate of population growth for the United States. In light of this evidence, one must question the sensibility of policy goals that seek to substantially further increase the proportion of Americans with college degrees.(Update: It has been brought to our attention that this sentence can be easily mis-interpreted; thus, we have decided to simply delete it to avoid any further confusion.)




For past Charts of the Week: Visit the CCAP Website, here.

Chart of the Week: Rise in Aid Per FTE Student

The rise in third-party payments has been a contributing factor to the soaring costs of higher education. Students are less price sensitive because of these payments, and universities have expanded their budgets and tuition prices accordingly. The graph below shows in real terms that student aid for full time equivalent students has nearly tripled since 1980.

Chart of the Week: Rise in Real College Costs

Since 1980, the average real cost of attending a 4-year public institution (tuition, fees and room and board) has more than doubled, going from $6300 per year to just over $14,000 in 2009. At private institutions, the real cost has gone up by close to 150% in the same period, rising from $13,700 per year to $33,400.

Chart of the Week: GPA by Athletic Conference

Average college grades vary widely by athletic conference affiliation. While the average GPA at Pac-10 schools (e.g., UCLA and the University of Washington) is a whopping 3.22, the average GPA at Conference-USA schools (e.g., the University of Houston and Southern Miss) is 2.85, as this chart demonstrates.


Notes: The sample includes GPAs only of public institutions. The sample for each conference average is at least 50% of all institutions affiliated with that conference.

Chart of the Week: U.S. Expenditures on Higher Education vs. Selected Nations' GDPs

In 2008 the United States spent $432 billion on higher education- more than the entire annual output of most countries, including many developed economies in Europe, as this chart shows.

Chart of the Week: Growth in Federal Aid

After a long absence, the CCAP Chart of the Week is making a return.

The below graph depicts the growth in real terms of total federal student aid since 1980. These figures exploded in the last decade, nearly doubling between 2000 and 2009, beyond the rate of inflation.