A recent Pew Research Center data roundup presents interesting facts about the new cohort of college graduates.  Using data from the National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit verification and research organization, the National Center for Education Statistics, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Pew Research Center surveys, the roundup indicates that:

1. Only about half of students earn degrees within six years.  Completion rates range from 39.9 percent for those who started at two-year public institutions, to 72.9 percent among students who started at four-year, private, nonprofit schools.
2. Business remains the most common college major, while library science, military technologies and applied sciences, and precision production ranked among the least common.
3. Recent grads are more likely to be unemployed or underemployed than before the Great Recession.
4. Among those who are employed full-time, college graduates out-earn people without degrees, and the gap in median annual earnings continues to widen between those with only a high-school degree, and those with at least a college degree.
5. College graduates continue to be positive about their education, indicating that it was worth the investment, although a closer look shows that Millenials are less likely to say that college has paid off (62 percent), and more likely to say that it will pay off (26 percent), compared to previous generations (84 and 6 percent respectively for Gen Xers, for example).

Read more:
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/30/5-facts-about-todays-college-graduates/

TeachingwithData.org resources:
Without a High-School Education (http://www.teachingwithdata.org/resource/3861)
Men's real hourly wage by education, 1973-2007 (http://www.teachingwithdata.org/resource/2947)
Do Blacks Earn Less than Whites and Why? (http://www.teachingwithdata.org/resource/3162)
Women's Education (http://www.teachingwithdata.org/resource/3104)
Education and Earnings: Does Education Pay? (http://www.teachingwithdata.org/resource/3107)
Education in America (http://www.teachingwithdata.org/resource/3124)
Exploring Education Attainment of U.S. Native-born and Foreign-born (http://www.teachingwithdata.org/resource/3131)
The Value of College (http://www.teachingwithdata.org/resource/3866)