Although college enrollment and completion rates have risen, those effects have not been felt across all socioeconomic strata. According to a recent study, among the nation's top income quartile, the proportion of young people earning college degrees increased from 36 percent to 54 percent between birth cohorts from the early 1960s and the late 1970s. In contrast, among young people in the bottom quartile, degree completion increased from 5 percent to 9 percent for the same time period.