Hi, I’m having a difficult time discerning if an individual received a college degree for surveys before the educ99 variable is made in the CPS. Does IPUMS have a method to determine this?
Thank you
The way the CPS measured education changed in 1992. The variable HIGRADE (available for pre-1992 samples) indicates the number of years of college that have been completed, while EDUC99 (available for 1992 on) gives a very clear indication of whether or not the individual received a bachelor’s degree.
A third variable, EDUC, merges these two schemes by assigning each degree the number of years it typically takes to complete them: “2 years of college” for associate’s degrees; “4 years of college” for bachelor’s degrees; and “5+ years of college” for graduate and professional degrees. While EDUC does not add any information about whether or not someone received a bachelor’s degree prior to 1992, it does provide the opportunity for researchers to draw parallels between completing 4 years of college and receiving a bachelor’s degree. It is then up to the researcher to decide whether this method is suitable for their research needs.
Hope this helps.