This First Look presents findings from the third, and final, follow-up survey of the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002). ELS:2002 provides a wealth of information from multiple sources (tested achievement, questionnaire, and administrative records) about the factors and circumstances related to the performance and social development of the American high school student over time. This report draws on ELS:2002 data collected in 2012 to describe the outcomes of the cohort at about age 26, approximately 10 years after they were high school sophomores. These outcomes reflect several key life course markers of the transition into early adulthood, including high school and postsecondary educational attainment, entering the labor market and starting a career, marriage and family formation, student debt and aid, and the perceived impact of the college experience. The First Look tables provide national estimates for these phenomena, explored in terms of differences by sophomores' demographic, social, and academic characteristics.
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