A new study that tracked 15,000 students since their sophomore year in high school in 2002 until now has found that poor students who planned to get college degrees fell far below their own expectations—leaving an even greater gap in graduation rates than in enrollment between them and their wealthier counterparts.

The study placed students into four groups depending on the income and education level of their parents, with parents of students in the lowest "quartile" typically working unskilled jobs and parents of those in the highest quartile usually working as professionals or managers.

Susan Dynarski, a professor of education, public policy and economics at the University of Michigan, delivers the results:



In both groups, most of the teenagers had high hopes for college. Over all, more than 70 percent of sophomores planned to earn a bachelor’s degree. In the top quartile, 87 percent expected to get at least a bachelor’s, with 24 percent aiming for an advanced degree. In the bottom quartile, 58 percent of students expected to get at least a bachelor’s degree and 12 percent to go on to graduate school. Thirteen years later, we can see who achieved their goals. Among the participants from the most disadvantaged families, just 14 percent had earned a bachelor’s degree. That is, one out of four of the disadvantaged students who had hoped to get a bachelor’s had done so. Among those from the most advantaged families, 60 percent had earned a bachelor’s, about two-thirds of those who had planned to.

Dynarski points out that the gap isn't simply a product of ability either. Even poor students who tested in the top 25 percent of their peers on math graduated from college at far lower rates than their academic equals in the higher socioeconomic level. The completion gap between those two groups was 33 percent, which wasn't all that different than the 46 percent completion gap between the two groups overall.

The results show that poorer students who perform well in high school face even greater obstacles to achieving their goals in college.

