Browsing by Author "Fry, Richard"

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    The Changing Profile of Student Borrowers
    Fry, Richard (Pew Research Center, 2014-10-07)
    This report focuses on the family income background of recent college graduates who took on student debt and how the financial profile of borrowers has changed over the past 20 years. Many recent analyses have examined why undergraduates are borrowing more for their education. This analysis seeks to illuminate which undergraduates are increasingly borrowing to finance their completion of a bachelor’s degree. Understanding the changing income background of student borrowers is useful for illuminating why college graduates may be having greater difficulty in meeting their debt obligations as well as understanding who might benefit from proposals to shift the repayment of loans from the student to the government.
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    Latinos in Higher Education: Many Enroll Few Graduate
    Fry, Richard (Pew Research Center, 2002-09-05)
    This report shows that by some measures a greater share of Latinos are attending college classes than non-Hispanic whites, and yet they lag behind every other population group in obtaining college degrees, especially bachelor’s degrees. A detailed examination of data for enrollment shows a high propensity among Latino high school graduates to pursue post-secondary studies. However, most are pursuing paths associated with lower chances of attaining a bachelor’s degree. Many are enrolled in community colleges, many also only attend school part-time, and others delay or prolong their college education into their mid-20s and beyond. These findings clearly show that large numbers of Latinos finish their secondary schooling and try to extend their education but fail to earn a degree. Heretofore, policy-makers and researchers concerned with Hispanic educational achievement have focused most intently on issues related to primary and secondary education, especially high school dropout rates. Those issues are undoubtedly important. This report, however, demonstrates that significant gains can be made with policy initiatives targeted at Latinos who graduated from high school, who applied for and were granted admission to a two- or four-year college and who have enrolled.
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    The Rise of College Student Borrowing
    Fry, Richard; Hinze-Pifer, Rebecca (Pew Research Center, 2010-11-23)
    This report shows that undergraduate college student borrowing has risen dramatically in recent years. Graduates who received a bachelor’s degree in 2008 borrowed 50% more (in inflation-adjusted dollars) than their counterparts who graduated in 1996, while graduates who earned an associate’s degree or undergraduate certificate in 2008 borrowed more than twice what their counterparts in 1996 had borrowed, according to a new analysis of National Center for Education Statistics data by the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends project.
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    A Rising Share of Undergraduates Are From Poor Families, Especially at Less Selective Colleges
    Fry, Richard; Cilluffo, Anthony (Pew Research Center, 2019-05-22)
    The overall number of undergraduates at U.S. colleges and universities has increased dramatically over the past 20 years, with growth fueled almost exclusively by an influx of students from low-income families and students of color. But these changes are not occurring uniformly across the postsecondary landscape. This report shows that the rise of poor and minority undergraduates has been most pronounced in public two-year colleges and the least selective four-year colleges and universities, according to the Pew Research Center analysis of National Center for Education Statistics data.