You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
Black and Hispanic students are more likely than their peers to consider dropping out of college, according to a Gallup and Lumina Foundation survey of current students conducted last fall. The most common reasons they gave for stopping coursework were emotional stress and personal mental health, followed by cost.
Forty-two percent of Black current students and 40 percent of Hispanic students said they had considered withdrawing from their program in the past six months, compared to 31 percent of white students. Over all, 35 percent of students across racial groups considered abandoning higher education. The findings were true across all postsecondary program types, including credential and industry certification pathways.
Gallup surveyed 6,015 currently enrolled students, 5,012 adults who enrolled in a postsecondary program after high school but did not complete it and 3,005 adults who had never enrolled.
Among the unenrolled Black and Hispanic adults that Gallup surveyed, about six in 10 expressed interest in entering a postsecondary program. But unenrolled adults across racial categories said they were more likely to consider associate degrees and microcredential programs than four-year bachelor’s degrees.
The Gallup survey also found that building confidence in the value of a program was the most important factor in attracting unenrolled white adults to higher education, whereas increasing financial aid was the top priority for Black and Hispanic adults.
