The Case for IES Postsecondary Studies: What NPSAS and BPS Tell Us About Student Veterans, Parents, First-Generation Student Experiences

The recent cancellation of critical postsecondary studies conducted by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) will have dire effects on our understanding of the realities of today’s college students—especially those who are veterans, parents, working, or first-generation. Fully grasping their experiences requires knowing what shapes their academic pathways and how they pay for college. Yet, very little public federal data capture details beyond race and income. The National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) and its longitudinal follow-up study, the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS), both administered by IES, are the only nationally representative, publicly available datasets that provide a comprehensive view of students’ access, progress in college, degree completion, and employment outcomes. Unlike datasets that only include information on students’ income level, NPSAS examines how students pay for college. These details can help shape policies that ensure all students have the supports needed to succeed.    

This post explores key questions about student veterans, parents, working and first-generation students that only NPSAS and BPS can answer.   

How Do Student Veterans’ Characteristics Shape Their Academic Experience?

NPSAS and BPS data offer critical insights into how veteran students finance their education, persist through college, and transition into the workforce. The surveys track the use of benefits like the Post-9/11 GI Bill and show where veterans enroll and how they pay for college, compared to other students. These unique datasets have identified that veterans are less likely to engage in campus experiences, like internships and experiential learning, that could boost degree completion and long-term employment prospects. By capturing data on veterans’ use of resources like advising and student services, NPSAS and BPS insights can inform policies and practices that ensure veterans receive necessary support. 

NPSAS highlights key differences between veterans and their college-going peers: 

• 63% of veterans are 30+ compared to 19% of nonveterans, and about half of student veterans are also parents. 

• While most veterans attend community college, they are twice as likely to attend for-profit colleges, compared with non-veterans.  

• 44% of veterans report never meeting with an advisor within six years of enrollment.  

• Only 17% of veteran students earned a bachelor’s degree by 2017, compared to 37% of nonveterans. 

NPSAS, BPS, and data from the Veterans Benefits Administration offer the most comprehensive view into veterans’ education outcomes. No other sources are as robust in this regard.  

What Completion Challenges Do Working Students and Student Parents Face?

Attending college full-time, participating in campus activities, and consistently using academic support services improves students’ likelihood of degree completion. However, students balancing jobs or caregiving responsibilities, often struggle to stay enrolled full-time and maintain high GPAs, increasing their chances of delaying graduation or stopping out.  

Comprehensive data on how students allocate time and resources outside the classroom is essential for identifying barriers that disproportionately affect certain student populations—and for informing policies that support their success. This is especially important since: 

• 41% of undergraduate students work full-time, often while still facing high levels of unmet financial need. 

• 18% of undergraduates care for minor dependents and must navigate added financial and logistical burdens of childcare.  

Despite their prevalence, working students and parentings students remain largely invisible in most federal data. Since states and institutions define and collect data on these populations inconsistently, if at all, NPSAS provides one of the few ways to track and understand their experiences.  

Where Do First Generation Students Enroll and How Do Their Outcomes Compare to Their Peers?

NPSAS and BPS are the only data identifying first-generation students and connecting their enrollment and persistence to outcomes. These data reveal that 42% of students who earned a degree within six years were the first in their family to do so. First-generation students often require additional support in accessing financial aid, navigating college onboarding processes, and utilizing campus resources—challenges compounded by their higher enrollment at open access institutions, which, due to constrained resources, may provide fewer tailored support services.

Key insights from NPSAS and BPS show:  

• 69% of students enrolled at open access institutions were first-generation, compared to 28% at highly selective institutions. 

• Among students who entered college in 2011, six years later, only 19% of first-generation students earned a bachelor’s degree, compared to 47% whose parents completed a degree. 

• 30% of first-generation bachelor’s degree recipients had difficulty making student loan payments, compared to 21% of bachelor’s degree recipients whose parents completed a degree.  

Without NPSAS and BPS, we lose the ability to identify, track, and address the evolving needs of underrepresented student populations. These are the only federal data sources that provide comprehensive insights into how students manage college affordability, stay enrolled and engaged with campus resources, persist to completion, and transition to the workforce. Losing these critical data hinders policy improvements and limits our understanding of the realities students face.  

This blog post is part of IHEP’s “Making the Case for IES Postsecondary Studies” series which explores the potential impact of the sudden cancellation of grants and contracts at IES. The posts shed light on the critical insights policymakers, researchers, student success professionals and the postsecondary field writ large stand to lose if these studies end permanently. 

Unless otherwise noted, all data points included in this post were generated from the National Center on Education Statistics DataLab.