college enrollment and college duration are not artifacts of reporting error. To get the time
periods for waiting duration and college duration, the following are needed: the year of
high school graduation, the year of first college entrance, the year of last college
attendance, and the year of college graduation. To identify the year of high school
graduation, we used information on high school graduation year and type of diploma. The
accuracy of this report is confirmed by inspecting data on highest grade attended, highest
grade completed, and current enrollment status. We used all reported schooling
information. Observations with marked inconsistencies were eliminated.7 Based on the
year of high school graduation, first entrance year in college is identified by college related
information: college enrollment status, current enrollment status, other grade related
information.
The year of college dropout was created by first looking at college enrollment
status and highest completed grade in 1990. If a high school graduate was not currently
enrolled in college in 1990 and the highest grade completed exceeded 12 but was less than
16 years, we determined the last college enrollment year and designated this as the year of
college dropout.8 The year of college graduation was created in a similar fashion. For an
individual who reported that their highest grade completed was greater than or equal to 16
7For inconsistency in NLSY79, see Light (1995a) for further details.
8While individuals may decide to return to school in the future, as of 1998 over 97 percent of those who we
designate as dropping out from college during the 1979-1990 period had not completed a bachelor’s degree.
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