Tracking the Gender Gap in Educational Attainment for Millennials

The National Center for Education Statistics has released a new report on the progress made by students who were sophomores in high school in the year 2002.

The report reveals several differences between men and women students that may be of interest.

• 91 percent of women had earned a high school diploma by 2012 compared to 88 percent of men.
• 87.9 percent of female high school sophomores in 2002 had enrolled in postsecondary education over the next decade. For males the figure was 79.9 percent.
• For women high school sophomores in 2002 who later enrolled in college, 41 percent eventually earned a at least a bachelor’s degree. For men, the figure is 37 percent.
• For women who earned a bachelor’s degree, 51.2 percent did so in the traditional four-year period. For men, 42.4 percent completed their bachelor’s degree in four years.
• Nine percent of women had earned a master’s degree or higher compared to 6 percent of men.
• More than 63 percent of women who enrolled in higher education took out a student loan compared to 56.5 percent of men.

In addition to data on educational attainment, the report included statistics on employment, marital status and other characteristics of this group of students who were high school sophomores in 2002.

The full report, Early Millennials: The Sophomore Class of 2002 a Decade Later, can be downloaded here.