Nontraditional Students Dominate Undergraduate Enrollments, U.S. Study Finds By JAMILAH EVELYN
Washington
Almost 75 percent of today's undergraduate students are considered "nontraditional" because of their age, financial status, or when they enrolled in college, according to a report released Monday by the U.S. Education Department.
Each year, the department's National Center for Education Statistics prepares a report, "The Condition of Education," for Congress. The report is a compendium of facts and data on the state of education in the United States, at all levels. In addition to the annual information, the center each year prepares some special analyses on certain topics.
This year's report looks at the rise in the number of nontraditional students. Although the department offers an inexact definition of what makes a nontraditional student, such students typically are a few years older than most high-school graduates, and many attend college part time. Students can also be identified as nontraditional based on the degree to which they are financially independent, the amount of time they work, and whether they have dependents, among other things.
Only 27 percent of today's undergraduates are "traditional" students who have a high-school diploma, enroll full time right after high school, and depend on parents for financial support. Of the remaining 73 percent, those who are "highly nontraditional" -- because they met many of the criteria defining such students -- are likeliest to attend public two-year colleges. But the study also found that 37 percent of students at public four-year institutions and 35 percent of students at private, nonprofit institutions are moderately to highly nontraditional.
The most common nontraditional characteristic was financial independence, with some 51 percent of undergraduates included in that category, followed by part-time attendance at 48 percent, and then delayed enrollment at 46 percent.
The report is available online at the statistics center's Web site <http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2002025>. It can be viewed using Adobe Acrobat Reader, available free.