The number of college students rose 15 percent in the decade ending in 2003, according to data released on Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The data, which appear in a report titled “School Enrollment — Social and Economic Characteristics of Students: October 2003,” show that the number of graduate and undergraduate students increased over the 10-year period to 16.6 million, from 14.4 million, and that enrollments of minority students grew to make up nearly 30 percent of the total.