The Best-Laid Plans: Expressed Versus Revealed Preferences for College Enrollment of Public School Students in Massachusetts

• In Event: 33.079 - Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: 33.079-13 - Examining Notions of College Readiness

Abstract

This paper explores whether the expressed preferences for college enrollment in eighth grade change by tenth grade and how well the preferences revealed in eighth and tenth grade are realized by public school students in Massachusetts. Using a first difference strategy, I find that students who plan to attend a four-year college are more likely to enroll in college and attend a four-year institution than their peers who did not have this plan. Students who plan to attend a two-year college in both eighth and tenth grade are less likely to enroll in any type of college. Both Black and Latino students are less likely than their White peers to have college enrollment outcomes that mirror their expressed preferences.

Author

• Tolani Britton, Harvard University