"United States is losing ground to other industrialized nations. Over several decades, we’ve slipped from first to seventh among the nations of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in the percentage of adults aged 25 to 34 with bachelor’s degrees and to ninth in the number of adults in that age range with at least a high school education."

http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&CONTENTID=18300&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm

"Degree completion is most affected by SES, high school-based academic resources, degree aspirations, enrollment patterns, taking college courses in math and sciences, financial aid, and having children while attending college."

Pathways to a Four-Year Degree: Determinants of Degree Completion among Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Students http://35.8.168.242/paperdepot/2003cabrera.pdf

Only 21% of American adults over the age of 25 have a bachelor's degree or better.

Swail, W.S. (2002, July/August). Higher education and the new demographics: Questions for policy. Change, 15-23.http://lists.eou.edu/archive/ctl-group/d20034/0019.html