The Places You'll Go: Post-Graduation Plans of County Graduates (2015)

Here is data from the County Report Cards of the NYS Education Department showing what the post-graduation plans were for graduates in 2015. Click the graphic to enlarge it.

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Regional College Enrolled Foreign Born Population (2012)

The Utica Observer Dispatch had an article today about the challenges facing foreign born refugees when enrolling in college. They cite several difficulties including language hurdles. In an effort to look more comprehensively at the issues brought up in the article. I've put together several graphics based on our regional foreign-born college-enrolled population.

The data comes from the 2012 Five Year ACS Estimates for our regional PUMAs. Click on any of the graphics below to enlarge them and take a closer look at this intriguing population.

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SAM I Am: Student Achievement Measures and Post-Secondary Graduation Rates

Ever wonder how long it takes to graduate college?  Or better yet, what percent of students who start at a particular college end up graduating from there?

Well the Student Achievement Measure (SAM) tracks student movement across post-secondary institutions to provide a more complete picture of undergraduate student progress and completion within the higher education system. Usual measures of student progress and completion, including government-led efforts, usually underreport student achievement because they do not account for an increasingly mobile student population. SAM is an alternative to the federal graduation rate, which is limited to tracking the completion of first-time, full-time students at one institution. 

Nationally, more than one in five students who complete a degree do so at an institution other than the one where they started, according to a recent study by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Yet the typical method for calculating graduation rates, as stipulated by federal legislation, counts only those students who enroll full-time and then start and finish at their first college or university. SAM better accounts for the success of these students.

 

There are two models included in SAM, one for students enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs and one for students enrolled in associate’s degree or certificate programs. The associate's model provide the following for both full time and part time students: 

• The percent that graduated within 6 years of first enrolling in the initial institution;
• The percent that are still enrolled in the initial institution after 6 years;
• The percent that have transferred to a different institution;
• The percent whose current status is unknown.

The bachelor's model provides slightly more information:

• The percent that graduated within 6 years of first enrolling in the initial institution;
• The percent that are still enrolled in the initial institution after 6 years;
• The percent that have transferred to,  and graduated from, a different institution;
• The percent that have transferred to,  and still enrolled at, a different institution;
• The percent whose current status is unknown.

 Below is a listing of colleges that participate in the program in New York State. The institutions shaded in green have active files reviewable by visiting the SAM Participants page and selecting New York State and then clicking on the college name (only those with hyperlinks have participated long enough to have useable data).

2012 SAT Scores by School District

Wondering how your district does in preparing your child for the SATs? Bizjournal.com has a great site where you can select your region, and your county to see all of the local schools scores on the SAT for the 2012 year (which is the most recent released by the Department of Education).

Simply click the link above then pick your region, and the county you live in and search to see all of the districts.

Below are the ranks for Herkimer and Oneida Counties.

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How Employers View Online Versus Traditional Degrees

With recent data suggesting there has been a decline in college enrollments, perhaps some students, as well as employers, will find themselves looking at the value of online degrees more seriously. many of the local colleges offer online course work, which can be used of course to attain a degree. The question becomes how employers view those online programs when hiring employees.

This info-graphic from Drexel.com suggests that there are three vital criteria employers are looking for when an application comes across their desk from a potential worker who has an online degree: whether the program has accreditation; whether it has a bricks and mortar campus, and whether it has an established brand.

 

The Value of a Two Year Degree

An article at CNN.com about two year degrees suggests that, at least in some cases, a two year associates degree can result in a better pay off than a four year degree. The study, by CollegeMeasure.org, is largely based on a data collected in Texas concerning graduates of technical programs and with certificates in technical fields.

 

The results of the study suggest that the degree a student earns matters, but that there are important variations in returns by program and by institution. This report documents some of the differences in first-year earnings ranging from certificate programs through master’s programs.

 

Among the findings are:

 

• Technical-oriented associate’s degree programs are helping many students successfully enter the labor market by equipping them with skills that are in demand. On average, a year after graduation, students with two-year technical degrees have first-year median earnings of more than $50,000, just over $11,000 more than graduates of bachelor’s degree programs across the state.

 

• Graduates with these two-year technical degrees earn, on average, about $30,000 more than students who completed academically oriented two-year degrees and are now in the labor force.

 

• Certificates are one of the fastest-growing credentials offered by community colleges. The median first-year earnings of certificate holders often exceed those of graduates from academic and technical associate’s programs.

Locally, here's some numbers, broken down by the gender of the graduate, that shows the numbers of Associate Degrees among those age 25 or older in Herkimer and Oneida Counties.

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U.S. Census: National College Enrollment Down in 2012

According to a report released by the Census Bureau yesterday, college enrollment in the Fall of 2012 plunged by half a million (467,000) from one year earlier. This decline, which includes both graduate and undergraduate enrollment, follows a period of substantial growth — 3.2 million — between 2006 and 2011.
This decline in college enrollment was driven by older students — that is, those 25 and older. Their enrollment fell by 419,000, while the enrollment of younger students declined by 48,000.
Hispanics didn't follow the trend, as the number enrolled in college grew by 447,000 from 2011 to 2012. Meanwhile, non-Hispanic white enrollment declined by 1.1 million and black enrollment by 108,000. From 2006 to 2012, the percentage of all college students who were Hispanic rose from 11 percent to 17 percent. The percentage who were black also rose (from 14 percent to 15 percent), but the percent of non-Hispanic white students declined from 67 percent to 58 percent.

Locally the number of persons enrolled in college according to the American Communities Survey (ACS)  is considerably higher than it was in the Census 2000. Whereas at the time of the 2000 Census approximately 6.4% of the population 18 and over in Herkimer County, and 7.1% of the population age 18 and over in Oneida County, were enrolled in college, the 2011 ACS Five Year Estimates see these percentages rising to 7.9% and 8.6%, respectively. In both cases (the Census 2000 and the 2011 ACS ) about 80% of Herkimer County college enrollees attend public colleges; while only 61% of college students from Oneida County chose public institutions of higher learning to continue their education.

How America Pays For College (2013)

A national study by Sallie Mae, How America Pays for College 2013, conducted by Ipsos, is a compelling look at how today's families view higher education, manage higher education costs, and tap a variety of funding sources. This year's study finds that families are adjusting to a new post-recession reality to pay for college.

 Among their main findings:

• Higher scholarships and grants. "Free money" now pays for 30% of college costs, up from 25% four years ago.
• Reduced parent contributions. Parents now fund from income and savings 27% of college expenses, down from 2010’s peak funding of 36%.
• Unwavering belief in the value of college. 85% of parents strongly agreed that college was an investment in their child’s future, the highest in the last five years.
• New cost-consciousness. A higher number of families factor college costs into the choice of school.

How America Pays for College 2013 offers important, informative insights into how families are managing to fund higher education in the current economic landscape. To view an infographic that captures a lot of the data and provides you some perspective on how the costs of college are being handled differently these days than in the past, visit this Sallie Mae site.