The percentage of freshmen who drop out of college improved slightly in 1998, for the second year in a row, according to a report released today by ACT, Inc., but the rate at which undergraduates complete their degrees fell to a third consecutive record low. The decrease in the overall dropout rate can be attributed to private colleges, where the percentage of freshmen who didn't return fell for the first time in a decade, to 25.3 from the high of 25.9 in 1996 and 1997. Public colleges and universities experienced a slight increase, of 0.2 percent. Nevertheless, the dropout rate at those institutions remains below the 1988 peak. Perhaps we're now seeing the positive impact of those programs.
Students have many choices to make.
With the greater availability of jobs that offer reasonable pay, some are choosing to earn money rather than to accumulate debt. A complicating factor is the significant increase in high school graduates who immediately go on to postsecondary education, now about 67 percent. The percentage of students who earn a bachelor's degree within five years is now down to 52.1, seven-tenths of a percent below the figure reported for 1997. The graduation rate is much lower at public than at private colleges, but the trend at both types of institution continues downward. The public five-year rate fell to 42.9 percent in 1998, while the private rate slipped to 56.2 percent.