This First Look report provides selected, nationally representative information about the about the transition of 2002 high school sophomores to college, the selectivity and other characteristics of the institutions in which they enrolled, their choice of major, and other characteristics of their enrollment to illustrate the wealth of data that is available from the from the Second Follow-up of the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002. When the Second Follow-up data were collected, most of the sample members were sophomores in college. By 2006, approximately 2 years after their expected graduation date, 88 percent of spring 2002 sophomores had graduated from high school with a diploma and 4 percent had earned a General Education Development certificate. Sixty percent enrolled “immediately” in college after receiving their diploma (by October if they left high school between January and July, or by the following February if they left high school after July). High school students whose parents' income exceeded $100,000 per year had the highest rates of attendance at 4-year public and private institutions (44 and 26 percent, respectively), compared to students whose families earned $20,000 per year or less (14 and 7 percent, respectively). Thirteen percent of the spring 2002 high school sophomore class enrolled first in a highly selective 4-year institutions and 19 percent enrolled in a moderately selective 4-year institutions. Spring 2002 sophomores who took calculus in high school had the highest rates of enrollment (52 percent) in highly selective 4-year institutions. Among spring 2002 high school sophomores who had attended a postsecondary institution, 15 percent entered college intending to study business, 17 percent entered college intending to study health, and 15 percent entered college intending to study engineering/computer science/natural sciences/mathematics. An appendix to the report briefly summarizes the statistical design of the Second Follow-up.
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