Affluent White Students Are Skipping College, and No One Is Sure Why

White students are falling out of higher education more quickly than any other racial group, and recent data suggests that middle- and upper-income white students are skipping college at a higher rate than their lower-income peers. That flies in the face of entrenched narratives about more-affluent white students following a well-marked path to college. Experts can only speculate about why it might be happening. Data released in October by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center indicate that fewer white undergraduates from more affluent neighborhoods have enrolled in college over the past six years. This is happening as white students from lower-income neighborhoods enroll at slightly higher rates, and as Black and Hispanic undergraduate enrollment across the income spectrum has increased.