Fewer high school boys expect to attend college

Girls began outpacing boys in college degree attainment in the 1980s. This disparity is reflected in the Monitoring the Future survey of high school seniors, which asked whether 12^th grade boys and girls expected to attend college. By 2010, 12^th grade girls reported that they expected to go to college at a 7-percentage-point higher rate than their male peers. The gap has substantially widened since then. Expectations for attending college have fallen dramatically among graduating senior boys since 2016. In 2024, 66% of 12^th grade boys expected to attend college, compared to 82% of 12^th grade girls.

by Grant Bailey