> Alan Rudy wrote: "It is true that far more folks who would not have
> gone to college in the past now go to college"
>
> I've seen this type of statement a few times on this thread and maybe
> I am missing what you mean by it but the data presented here shows
> that the percentage of the US population attending colleges and
> universities is going down very slightly not going up (if I read it
> correctly). Sure in absolute numbers more US citizens are attending
> but not as a percentage. Which means we should be getting more of the
> cream of the crop (to put it crudely).
In 1970, when there was a really good reason to be in college, there were about 8M enrolled; today it's closer to 20M.
http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=98
Both undergraduate and graduate students doubled since then.
During that same time, the population of the US has gone from ~203M to ~308M.
/jordan