Alternative paths to college completion: Effect of attending a 2-year school on the probability of completing a 4-year degree

2006 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 463-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Sandy ◽  
Arturo Gonzalez ◽  
Michael J. Hilmer
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 164-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Erwin ◽  
Melissa Binder

We use the natural experiment of a state lottery scholarship to measure the effect of generous financial aid on graduation rates at New Mexico's flagship public university. During the study period, the scholarship program paid full tuition for eight semesters for any state resident earning a 2.5 grade point average in their first semester at any public two-year or four-year college. We find a significant positive completion effect of 10 percentage points (17.9 percent) for academically well-prepared students that is offset by a large negative effect of 11.6 percentage points (38.8 percent) for less-prepared students. We posit that the scholarship program, which effectively erased the difference in tuition at two- and four-year colleges, may have induced weaker students to take their chances on a more prestigious, yet riskier, academic path.


AERA Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 233285842199114
Author(s):  
Sorathan Chaturapruek ◽  
Tobias Dalberg ◽  
Marissa E. Thompson ◽  
Sonia Giebel ◽  
Monique H. Harrison ◽  
...  

Elective curriculums require undergraduates to choose from a large roster of courses for enrollment each term. It has proven difficult to characterize this fateful choice process because it remains largely unobserved. Using digital trace data to observe this process at scale at a private research university, together with qualitative student interviews, we provide a novel empirical study of course consideration as an important component of course selection. Clickstream logs from a course exploration platform used by most undergraduates at the case university reveal that students consider on average nine courses for enrollment for their first fall term (<2% of available courses) and these courses predict which academic major students declare two years later. Twenty-nine interviews confirm that students experience consideration as complex and reveal variation in consideration strategies that may influence how consideration unfolds. Consideration presents a promising site for intervention in problems of equity, career funneling, and college completion.


2021 ◽  
pp. 147797142199278
Author(s):  
Charlie Potter

Adult students are critical to addressing the college completion crisis. Retention and completion for adults lags behind students who enter college directly from high school. However, higher education has largely been built around service to younger high school graduates, and institutions are slow to change. A shift in focus to accommodate the needs and interests of adult learners will require additional research regarding the enrollment patterns and behaviours of adult students. This study uses quantitative methods and the Beginning Postsecondary Students 12/14 dataset to consider the role of transfer in the experience of the adult learner, with specific attention to the characteristics, demographics and experiences of adult transfer students as well as the predictors of reverse and lateral transfer behaviour in adult student populations.


1981 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Hazard Munro

Path analysis was used to test the Tinto model of college dropout using a sample drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. Through path analysis, a more parsimonious causal model was derived. Pre-college characteristics predicted college integration, but did not directly affect the dropout decisions. Factors related to the integration of the student into the college's academic setting appeared to be far more important to subsequent dropout decisions than were factors related to integration into the social setting. The commitment of the student to the goal of college completion had the strongest positive effect on the decision to remain in school.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Boatman ◽  
Michael Hurwitz ◽  
Jason Lee ◽  
Jonathan Smith

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Ovink

Latino/a enrollments at U.S. colleges are rapidly increasing. However, Latinos/as remain underrepresented at four-year universities, and college completion rates and household earnings lag other groups’. Yet, little theoretical attention has been paid to the processes that drive these trends, or to what happens when students not traditionally expected to attend college begin to enroll in large numbers. Longitudinal interviews with 50 Latino/a college aspirants in the San Francisco East Bay Area reveal near-universal college enrollment among these mostly low-income youth, despite significant barriers. East Bay Latino/a youth draw on a set of interrelated logics (economic, regional, family/group, college-for-all) supporting their enrollment, because they conclude that higher education is necessary for socioeconomic mobility. In contrast to the predictions of status attainment and rational choice models, these rationally optimistic college aspirants largely ignore known risks, instead focusing on anticipated gains. Given a postrecession environment featuring increasing costs and uncertain employment, this approach led many to enroll in low-cost, less supportive two-year institutions, resulting in long and winding pathways for some. Results suggest that without structural supports, access to college fails to meaningfully redress stratification processes in higher education and the postrecession economy that significantly shape possibilities for mobility.


Author(s):  
Katherine Leu

Postsecondary education is awash in data. Postsecondary institutions track data on students’ demographics, academic performance, course-taking, and financial aid, and have put these data to use, applying data analytics and data science to issues in college completion. Meanwhile, an extensive amount of higher education data are being collected outside of institutions, opening possibilities for data linkages. Newer sources of postsecondary education data could provide an even richer view of student success and improve equity. To explore this potential, this brief describes existing applications of analytics to student success, presents a framework to structure understanding of postsecondary data topics, suggests potential extensions of these data to student success, and describes practical and ethical challenges.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 42-54
Author(s):  
Amanda (Swanson) Goff

In pursuit of public welfare, the federal government supports a range of programs designed to encourage desirable behavior. Though for centuries lawmakers have strived to account for irrational actors and ultimately produce effective policy, behavioral economics has only entered the discussion recently as a means to accomplish these ends. The G.I. Bill provides a unique opportunity to examine behavioral economic principles as they relate to a long-standing, well-developed program. Introduced in 1944, the G.I. Bill provides tuition assistance and other educational benefits to support US military veterans pursuing a postsecondary credential. Benefit usage rates remain high and relatively stable in the decades since the legislation’s enactment, suggesting that educational incentives may serve as powerful motivators for veterans continuing their education. However, low college completion rates amongst veterans that choose to use G.I. Bill benefits limit the program’s true effectiveness. This case illustrates both the benefits and the limitations of applying behavioral economics concepts in policy design, particularly as demands on the G.I. Bill program continue to evolve.


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