Where California High School Students Attend College

For as much as we know about the economic benefits of a college degree, California policymakers and educators have little information about the college destinations of high school graduates. To fill this information gap, we assembled a unique data set of three recent cohorts of public high school students matched with college enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse. This report, a product of a partnership with the California Department of Education, details where California public high school students attend college and how college attendance and destinations vary by county.

• Among California public high school students, 63% enroll in college following high school graduation.
  • 26% of high school students enroll in a four-year college.
  • 37% of high school students enroll in a two-year college.
• Among California public high school students who enroll in college:
  • 28% enroll in public four-year campuses in-state (18% at CSU, 10% at UC).
  • 57% enroll in public two-year in-state community colleges.
  • 4% enroll in private in-state colleges, predominately four-year institutions.
  • 11% enroll in out-of-state institutions.
• Only 7% of all high school students (or 11% of all students who enroll in college) leave the state to attend college after high school, these students reach every state in the nation.
• Substantial disparities in college enrollment exist by student subgroups:
  • Female students are more likely to go to college, and more likely to attend four-year colleges, than male students.
  • Students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds enroll in college at lower rates than their more advantaged peers.
  • College enrollment, particularly by higher education sector, varies by race/ethnicity.