What do Palm Beach County Class of 2025 graduates say is next for them?
Palm Beach County schools' Class of 2025 graduates have tossed their caps, stashed their gowns and are either enjoying a summer respite before college, taking their first career steps, serving in the military or waiting to go serve.
A fortunate slice of the graduating class is traveling abroad, seeing the sights and figuring out their next steps during a "gap year."
One of former President Barack Obama's daughters, Malia, took a gap year before enrolling at Harvard. Her sister, Sasha, eschewed that path and went on to the University of Michigan. President Donald Trump's youngest son, Barron, also skipped a gap year before enrolling at New York University.
Each year, the Palm Beach County School District asks graduates about their post-graduation plans.
Most graduates — 55.3% of those surveyed — said they planned to attend a four-year college or university. That's higher than the 52.1% who said the same thing after graduating last year and higher than the 53.5% who said they were four-year collegebound in 2022.
The percentage of 2024 graduates who said they plan to attend a four-year college or university was lower than the 56% who were enrolled at a four-year university that fall, according to a matriculation report compiled by the school district.
Just over a quarter of 2025 graduates — 25.6% — told the district they planned to attend a two-year college. That was higher than the 24.2% of 2024 graduates who said they'd attend a two-year college. In fact, a higher percentage of 2025 graduates said they were two-year collegebound than the graduates from classes '21, '22, '23 and '24.
Data compiled by the district found that only 2% of 2024 graduates were enrolled in a two-year college that fall.
A small percentage of 2025 graduates — 3.6% — told the district they planned to serve in the military after high school. That was about on par with the 3.9% of 2024 graduates who said they'd serve in the military after graduation, and it was a tick higher than the percentage of graduates in 2023, 2022 and 2021 who said they'd go into the military.
District matriculation data does not include information on graduates who enrolled in the military.
About 9.1% of 2025 graduates told the district they planned to seek employment after graduation. That's lower than the percentage of graduates who said the same thing in 2024, 2023, 2022 or 2021.
District matriculation data does not include the percentage of graduates who joined the workforce after graduation.
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Wayne Washington is a journalist covering education for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Class of 2025 grads tell Palm Beach County School District their plans
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