Intersecting Identities and College Choice Processes: Race-Related Differences in College Enrollment Among First-Generation Students

• In Event: Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: First-Generation College Students: Perspectives and Processes

Abstract

Understanding college choice is important given the connection between students’ choice of institution and their eventual life success. However, enrollment remains stratified by socioeconomic class, generational status, and race. Thus it is important to understand students’ first-choice processes, particularly with an eye toward disparities between choice and access for different students.
This study explores college choice and access among first-generation students of different racial backgrounds. Using multi-group structural equation models and a national dataset of matriculating students, we investigate whether predictive factors of enrollment at first-choice institutions and college choice models differ for students of different racial backgrounds. Our study lends nuance to college choice research, suggesting models that might better apply to today’s increasingly diverse college-going population.

Authors

• Hannah Whang, University of California - Los Angeles

• Laura Bernhard, University of California - Los Angeles