More than Half of Middle Class Students Not Graduating from College

According to CNN.com, more than half of middle class kids who enter college are failing to earn bachelor’s degrees within six to eight years. “Middle class” is defined as having a household income of $46,000—$99,000.

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A college degree is widely considered a ticket to the middle class–the “gold standard,” says Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center of Education and the Workforce. That’s one reason why a lot of effort is going into getting lower income children into and through four-year colleges. But there is much less research being done on middle class students.

The U.S. Department of Education tracks college graduation rates in two ways, CNN.com says: It follows high school graduates after they leave school; and separately, it tracks all Americans who enter college in a particular year. Both methods revealed that less than half of middle class students were graduating from college.

Of those students who entered college in 2004, only 40% had earned bachelor’s degrees by 2012, according the Education Dept.’s first tracking method. The second found similar results: Of students from families with household incomes of between $60,000 and $92,000 who entered college in 2003, only 45% had earned their degree. About a third of the students cited financial concerns as a reason for dropping out.

Students from high-income households graduated at the rate of 63%.