Persistence and Attainment The second follow-up of students who
began their postsecondary education in 1989–90 provides an
opportunity to examine persistence and degree attainment after
approximately 5 years, by which time rates of attainment for a
bachelor’s degree become meaningful. Overall, half of all
1989–90 beginning postsecondary students had earned some type of
degree by 1994. Another 13 percent were still enrolled, and the
remaining 37 percent had left without attaining and were not
enrolled in 1994 (Nuñez and Cuccaro-Alamin 1998). First-
generation students were less likely than other students to have
earned a bachelor’s degree (13 versus 33 percent), about as
likely to have earned an associate’s degree (13 and 14 percent,
respectively), and more likely to have earned a vocational
certificate (18 versus 9 percent). First-generation students
were also more likely than others to have left without a degree
(45 versus 29 percent). Multivariate analysis confirms that,
among those who intended to earn a de