2003 College Enrollment and Work Activity of High School Graduates — 2004-04-27

Almost sixty-four percent of high school graduates from the class of 2003 were enrolled in colleges or universities in the fall, according to data released today by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. The college enrollment rate of recent high school graduates was little changed over the year and remains near historically high rates. Information on school enrollment and the work activity of high school graduates comes from an October supplement to the Current Population Sur- vey (CPS). The CPS is a monthly nationwide survey of about 60,000 house- holds that obtains information on employment, unemployment, earnings, dem- ographics, and other characteristics of the civilian noninstitutional pop- ulation age 16 and over. Additional information about the October supple- ment is included in the Technical Note. Of the 2.7 million youth who graduated from high school in 2003, 1.7 million (63.9 percent) were attending college in October.