To reap the full benefits of postsecondary education, students must attain a degree. Enrolling and then leaving without a degree has negative monetary, occupational, and other consequences for individuals (Tinto 1993). If leavers have borrowed to finance their education, they may be burdened with substantial loans to repay without the benefit of the higher salaries that often come with a degree.

The NELS 1988 8th-grade cohort was surveyed again in 2000 (8 years after most had finished high school). When the data from this survey are available for analysis, it will be possible to study this cohort’s postsecondary persistence and attainment. For now, the most useful sources of data on persistence and attainment are the BPS longitudinal studies, which include postsecondary students of all ages rather than a single high school cohort as in NELS. About two-thirds of those in BPS, however, were 19 years or younger (Kojaku and Nuñez 1998) so findings from future analyses of the NELS data may be similar to those from analysis of the BPS data.

In 1995–96, 47 percent of all beginning postsecondary students were first generation—that is, neither of their parents had more than a high school education (figure 9). The proportion of students who were first generation declined as institution level increased—from 73 percent at less-than-2-year institutions, to 53 percent at 2-year institutions, to 34 percent at 4-year institutions (Kojaku and Nuñez 1998).