Previously, we studied the rate at which METS students completed postsecondary degrees when compared with their peers. Today, we’ll look a little further into the types of degrees these students completed. Specifically, we will be breaking down the number of adult certificate, associates, and bachelors degrees received by the 125 METS seniors who enrolled in postsecondary education during the Fall 2008. We will also be looking at the number of advanced degrees.

When determining a postsecondary attainment rate, the standard measuring period, such as that used in the study performed by National Student Clearinghouse on behalf of the state of Maine, is six years.

In several instances, student’s received more than one type of degree. In these cases, we counted the highest level received. Specifically:

• Two students completed a Certificate and an Associates degree,
• One student completed a Certificate and a Bachelors degree,
• Three students completed an Associates and a Bachelors degree,
• And one student completed two different Associates degrees.

Sometimes these degrees were received separately, such as you would see in a 2+2 program, while in other instances they were all received at the same time.

Table 1: Postsecondary Degrees completed by 2007-2008 METS Cohort.

Source: Maine Educational Talent Search Study on the postsecondary attainment rates of the 2007-2008 Enrollment Cohort, 2016-2017.

As Table 1 shows, 57 out of 125, or 45.6% METS students completed a postsecondary degree within 6 years. Of those 57, 77% completed a Bachelors degree, 19% completed an Associates degree, and 4% completed a Certificate program.

Six years not enough time
Perhaps the most interesting result is that 6 years is clearly not a big enough sample size to evaluate the complete rates of this group. Eight additional students completed a degree outside the six year window, and another 9 are still working on a degree as of summer 2017. If you include the 65 total students who have completed a degree so far from this group, the actual METS attainment rate for the 2007-2008 enrollment cohort is 52%.

Advanced degrees
Nine METS students have gone on to earn advanced degrees, including eight Masters degrees and one doctorate. There are also nine other students from this cohort who are currently working towards an advanced degree.

Next up in our series on METS Outcomes is a further examination of some of the trends in METS postsecondary attainment.  

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