Articles

Life After High School: Young People Talk about Their Hopes and Prospects

Public Agenda Alert
Feb. 9, 2005

Public Agenda's latest study, "Life After High School," surveys young adults to examine the decisions they make about work and college. We found the vast majority of young adults strongly believe in higher education. But the survey raises questions about the trade-offs many minority students have to make on their college choices. The study also portrays the hit-or-miss career path for those without a degree.

The survey shows that young adults of all races have absorbed the message about getting ahead through higher education. Most report that their parents inspired the goal of going to college and most had a teacher in high school who took a strong personal interest in them and encouraged them to go on to college. But young people across all demographic groups reported that that counseling resources were stretched thin, with 53 percent saying there were not enough counselors in their high school.

Money plays a big role in decisions about where (or whether) to go to college. Nearly half of young people who don't continue their education after high school cite lack of money, the wish to earn money or having other responsibilities as reasons why they don't go. While money is not a factor in college selection for most young white Americans (60 percent), it is for most young African Americans and Hispanics. Six in 10 of both groups say that they would have attended a different college if money was not an issue. About half (51 percent) of young Asian Americans say this as well.

The survey raises troubling concerns about the prospects for young workers without college degrees. Compared to those who have a degree, these less-educated workers fell into their jobs more by chance than by choice and far fewer think of their job as a career. Young people with no degree are substantially less likely than those who have a degree to say their parents urged them to go to college.

To find out more, you can download a free copy of the full report or the executive summary, comment on our message board or see key statistics drawn from our Higher Education issue guide:

http://www.publicagenda.org/research/...

The study was funded by The College Board, GE Foundation, The George Gund Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and KnowledgeWorks Foundation.

Public Agenda is a nonpartisan opinion research organization helping Americans explore and understand critical issues since 1975. For more information about Public Agenda, visit http://www.publicagenda.org.