Postsecondary Curricular Trajectories: Trends, Outcomes, and New Directions

• In Event: Identifying Factors That Influence College Student Success in Academic and Labor Market Outcomes

Abstract

This paper draws on recently released postsecondary transcript data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY) to make three central contributions to the literature on higher education experiences and labor market outcomes. First, it provides a descriptive characterization of students’ average course-taking patterns within two- and four-year colleges in the United States. Second, it introduces more granular measures of curriculum, curricular diversity and curricular intensity. And third, it links these more granular measures with labor market outcomes. Early results indicate that, after accounting for level and quality of postsecondary institution, field of academic concentration and curricular intensity matter more for labor market returns than curricular diversity one year following degree completion.

Author

• Christina Ciocca, Columbia University