Students who use drugs in high school are less likely to attend or complete college.

n recent years, students’ experiences of college have become much more diverse, with some delaying post-high school enrollment, and attending both 2 and 4 year institutions. In new research which uses national survey data, Megan E. Patrick, John E. Schulenberg and Patrick M. O’Malley give an overview of trends in college attendance and its influences. Among their results, they find that youth from two-parent families were more likely to graduate from a 4-year than a 2-year college, and that those who used cigarettes, marijuana, or other illicit drugs in high school were more likely to drop out.