When and for Whom Is College "Worth" It? The Direct and Indirect Effects of Broad-Access College Enrollment on Economic Disadvantage (Poster 37)

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

As high-quality jobs and socioeconomic stability for less-educated workers have diminished, college is seen as the surest way to avoid adverse socioeconomic outcomes. However, institutional differences in student outcomes suggest that economic benefits depend on whether and where a student enrolls. In this study, I use data from the NLSY97 to assess how enrollment in a broad-access four-year institution affects low-wage work and unemployment relative to more-selective and community college options. I further consider the mediating pathway of degree attainment and explore heterogeneity by socioeconomic background. Findings show that the effect of a broad-access four-year college differs depending on the alternative. Relative to no college or a community college, enrolling in a broad-access four-year college reduces economic disadvantage, but relative to a more-selective four-year college enrolling in a broad-access four-year college does not increase economic disadvantage. The overall effects are substantially mediated by institutional differences in bachelor’s degree completion. Finally, my findings do not indicate heterogeneity by student socioeconomic background in the direct effect of broad-access four-year college enrollment on bachelor’s degree completion. To the extent that these colleges affect rates of economic disadvantage via differential bachelor’s degree completion, effects appear similar for low, middle, and high-income students.

Author

• Caitlin Ahearn, University of California - Los Angeles
  Presenting Author