The Economic and Educational Status of Women One Year After Earning Their Bachelor’s Degree

A new report from the U.S. Department of Education has been released on students who graduated from college during the 2015-16 academic year. The report shows employment status, debt level, graduate enrollment status, and income level of students one year after leaving college. Some of the data is broken down by gender.

Women made up 57.4 percent of all bachelor’s degree recipients in the 2015-16 academic year. It took these women an average of 52 months to earn their bachelor’s degrees after first enrolling in college. For men, it took an average of 55 months to earn their degrees.

For women college graduates, 70.3 percent had taken out loans to finance their college education. Only 63.7 percent of male college graduates had taken out loans to pay for college. The average student debt loan for women college graduates was $31,000. This was slightly higher than the debt load for male college graduate who had taken out loans. Their average debt load was $29,800.

One year after earning their bachelor’s degrees, 24.6 percent of women were enrolled in graduate education. For men who graduated from college in the 2015-16 academic year, 20.4 percent were enrolled in graduate school.

About 80.2 percent of all women who graduated from college were employed one year later compared to nearly 79.3 percent of men. Some 14.1 percent of women were both enrolled in graduate programs and were employed compared to 10 percent of men.

The median income of women college graduates one year after earning their bachelor’s degree was $37,400. For men, the median income was $41,600.

The full report, Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B:16/17): A First Look at the Employment and Educational Experiences of College Graduates, 1 Year Later, may be downloaded by clicking here.