JBHE: Latest News for 11/16/06

Survey Documents the Graduate Degree Attainment of Black and White College Graduates a Decade After They Completed Their Bachelor’s Degree

The U.S. Department of Education recently released a new report which tracks the progress of blacks and whites for the 10 years after they earned a bachelor’s degree in the 1992-93 academic year. The study offers a wide range of data on these graduates’ educational, economic, and social status 10 years after they completed their four-year college degree.

In what may come as a surprise to many readers is the fact that African Americans who obtained a bachelor’s degree in the 1992-93 academic year were more likely than whites who earned their bachelor’s degree that year to go on to graduate study. For blacks, 45.5 percent of all college graduates had enrolled in an advanced degree program over the next decade. For whites, the figure was 39.4 percent. Despite a higher likelihood of enrollments for blacks, about one quarter of blacks and one quarter of whites who earned a bachelor’s degree in 1992-93 had actually completed an advanced degree program. Some 11.2 percent of blacks were still enrolled in a graduate program 10 years after earning their bachelor’s degree compared to 5.4 percent of whites.

For students who went on to earn an advanced degree, blacks were more likely than whites to earn a doctorate. Some 2.3 percent of all black students who graduated from college in 1992-93 had achieved a doctoral degree by 2003. Only 1.8 percent of white college graduates went on to earn a doctorate. Blacks were slightly more likely than whites to earn a master’s degree but whites were slightly more likely to earn a professional degree than blacks.

For all students who graduated from college in 1992-93 and went on to earn an advanced degree, 26.5 percent of all blacks earned an MBA degree. For whites, 20 percent of all advanced degree holders held an MBA. Nearly 18 percent of white advanced degree holders earned a master’s degree in education. For blacks, the figure was 12 percent.

Whites were more likely than blacks to have won a Ph.D. or a law or medical degree. Blacks were more than three times as likely as whites to earn a doctoral degree other than a Ph.D. These degrees include the educational doctorate.