Graduation Rates

Increasing numbers of low-income students graduate from high school academically prepared to enter college, however many of these students are not able to afford going to and staying in college. Students from low income making less than $25,000 per year, have 32 percentage points lower of an enrollment rate than students whose families make over $75,000 per year. Similarly, low income students go to four year institutions at only 1/2 the rate of students whose family incomes exceed $75,000 per year.The college participation rate at four-year institutions for students from low-income families is only one half the rate for students from families with incomes greater than $75,000. The unfortunate truth reveals itself in these statistics; Even students with the same abilities and qualifications are forced to or encouraged to limit their education and their future success due to their unfortunate financial situations. In 2013 77% (up from 40% in 1970) of adults from families in the top 25% in income earned at least a bachelor’s degrees by age 24 , 40%, according to a new report by the

About 20% of students from the lowest quarter in income completed their bachelor's degree by age 24, whereas 99% of students from the top earning families did the same. One could deduce from the statistics that for the top 25%, a secondary education is expected as well as relatively easy to attain; The wealthy face no financial or cultural barriers on their journeys to complete degrees.

This gap in the ease regarding the attainment of an undergraduate degree mirrors the gap in wealth in the U.S. As of 2010 the top 1% owned 42% if the nation's wealth, the top 20% owned 95%, and the bottom 80% of Americans owned only 5%. The obstacles that low income students face in order to receive an undergraduate degree keep these wealth gaps in place; without an undergraduate degree, a well paying job is much more difficult to acquire, and therefore poverty is much more difficult to escape. Individuals who are lacking an undergraduate degree make a median of $1.4 million less than individuals with an undergraduate degree over their lifetimes. One could assume that graduates of more equally diverse financial backgrounds would reflect an economically healthier nation as well as the opportunity to change the financial class that one is born into.

Professor G. William Domhoff, University of California at Santa Cruz : "Who Rules America: Wealth, Income, and Power"

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University of Pennsylvania and the Pell Institute. Only 9% of bottom quartile of income students were able to do the same, barely budging from its former 6% figure of 1970. This particular study defines the top 25% as having a family income of more than $108,650, and the bottom quartile as earning less than $34,160. This enormous gap in graduation rates between top 25% and the bottom 25% mirrors the growing wealth gap in the United States and furthers inequality; The poor are stuck in lower paying jobs without a college education, and with lower paying jobs have no excess money to save for an education.