Graduate education is among the fastest growing segments of the U.S. higher educational system. This paper estimates the returns to Master's degrees and examines heterogeneity in the returns by field area, student demographics and initial labor market conditions. We use rich administrative data from Ohio and an individual fixed effects model that…

Do older community college students build momentum toward graduation differently than their younger peers? One-third of students in community colleges are 25 years of age or older, and these students tend to have lower rates of graduation than their younger peers. Yet, we know little about how the factors that influence college graduation differ…

Studies indicate that racial disparities in STEM achievement or equity grade gaps are associated with faculty fixed mindset beliefs; however, whether specific instructional beliefs are linked to student academic achievement remains unclear. We surveyed 216 STEM faculty to assess their mindset and instructional beliefs and linked these to detailed…

First-year seminars are frequently designed to help students adjust to and succeed in college. Although considerable literature has explored this topic, many previous studies may have notable problems with self-selection, since students who choose to participate are likely more motivated academically than those who do not. Therefore, this study…

Longstanding disparities in four-year transfer rates for Black/African American and Latinx/Hispanic community college students, relative to their Asian and white peers, raise important equity questions about the vertical transfer function in the U.S. higher education system. Using data from one of the nation's largest and most racially and…

Research has shown that family structure changes negatively influence educational attainment, but they overlook qualitative distinctions in college choice, such as college selectivity. Yet, college choice research has largely focused on static measures of family structure, failing to account for year-to-year family structure changes that occur…

Very few studies have examined issues of work-life balance among faculty of different racial/ethnic backgrounds. Utilizing data from Harvard University's Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education project, this study examined predictors of work-life balance for 2953 faculty members from 69 institutions. The final sample consisted of…

This study seeks to understand which socio-demographic variables explain bystander readiness to help (BRH) among a diverse (via race/ethnicity) sample of college students. This study uses an intersectional approach by investigating how gender intersects with variables, specific to a college student population (e.g., class level, college of major,…

This study examines relationships between dual enrollment and high school graduation, college enrollment, college choice (2-year or 4-year), and persistence in college among Nebraska's 2018 high school graduating class. Unlike previous studies that focus on states where dual enrollment is standardized and subsidized by state policy, the Nebraska…

This study provides comparable lower-bound estimates of inequality of opportunity for tertiary education (EIOp) for 31 countries in Europe, by using the two EU-SILC waves for which information on family background is available (2005 and 2011). The results reveal an important degree of heterogeneity, with Northern European countries showing low…

Using hierarchical linear modeling, this study examined how positive faculty support is associated with mathematical self-concept development among students in STEM fields and how the association differs for male and female students. The study utilized data from the 2003 Freshman Survey and the 2007 College Senior Survey (CSS) and a sample of 2184…

The concept of grit as described by Duckworth ("Journal of personality and social psychology" 92:1087, 2007) has captured the attention of educators and researchers alike. A measure of a student's ability to effortfully persist in the face of struggle, grit is proposed to be an important characteristic required for students to succeed…

Previous studies have documented student-faculty interaction in STEM, but fewer studies have specifically studied negative forms of interaction such as discrimination from faculty. Using a sample of 562 STEM undergraduates from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, we use hierarchical generalized linear modeling to investigate various…

Using state administrative data for three cohorts of college enrollees from 1997 to 2008 and incorporating propensity score matching techniques, we examine the effects of attending a Minority-Serving Institution (MSI)--that is, a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) or a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI)--on college-completion outcomes…

This study examined US undergraduate students' intent to study abroad upon college entry and their actual participation in study abroad during their undergraduate years, correlating the college outcomes of three cohorts to identify trends. The findings show that study abroad intent and participation are interrelated and shaped by an array of…