2001 College Enrollment and Work Activity of High School Graduates — 2002-05-14

Slightly more than three in every five graduates of the 2001 high school class were enrolled in colleges or universities in the fall, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The college enrollment rate was little changed from the previous 2 years, but was below the record high of 67 percent in 1997. Information on school enrollment and the work activity of high school graduates comes from an October supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is a monthly nationwide survey of about 60,000 households that obtains information on employment, unemployment, earnings, demographics, and other characteristics of the civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over. Additional information about the October supplement is included in the Technical Note. Among the 2.5 million members of the 2001 high school graduating class, 1.6 million (61.7 percent) were enrolled in college the following October.