Does Type of College Matter? The Impact of Attending For-Profit Colleges on Degree Attainment

• In Event: 411 - Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02. Education and Inequality.

Abstract

For-profit colleges have dramatically expanded in the last three decades and now account for roughly 10% of all institutions of higher education in the United States. Using the 2004-2009 wave of the Beginning Post-secondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS), this paper investigates the ways in which post-secondary institutional sector influence the persistence, degree attainment, and degree completion of post-secondary students. I find that even after controlling for measures of past academic achievement, students who attend for-profit schools are less likely to complete their degrees than their peers who do not. However, I also find that those for-profit students are also more likely to attain their degrees and remain in school. Implications for research on stratification in higher education are discussed.

Author

• David K Kirui, University of Pennsylvania