Just in By The nUMBers 25% The percentage of students who are independent and are earning less than $20,000 a year or who have parents who make $20,000 or less Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Almanac for 2011-12. Of the students who make less than $40,000 a year (or have families who do), half attend public two-year institutions; another 31 percent or so attend four-year public or private non-profit institutions of some type. Almost half of all college students identify themselves as independent: 15 percent are unmarried, 13.4 percent are unmarried with children, 12 percent are married with children, and 5.9 percent are married with no children. Of all the students who are parttime, almost 35 percent are 15 to 23 years old. Fully one-fifth are first-generation students, and just over a quarter identify themselves as a race other than Caucasian. 12 TalkiNg STick