The Neglected College Race Gap: Racial Disparities Among College Completers

Abstract

For many years, the conversation about equity in higher education has focused on the serious gaps in access for black and Hispanic people. Awareness has also been growing that getting into college is not enough; black and Hispanic students are also much less likely to graduate. There are serious inequities even among students who do graduate from college. Using federal data on the type of credentials students earn and the majors they study, this analysis finds that, compared with white students, black and Hispanic graduates are far more likely to have attended for-profit colleges and less likely to have attended four-year public or nonprofit institutions.