Sociologists of education have a longstanding interest in studying the relationship between schooling and inequality in society. While we know education matters for who gets ahead, we still know relatively less about the processes and mechanisms behind this relationship. In my dissertation, I focus on higher education as a key site where…

This qualitative study focuses on understanding the motivational factors driving Latino students to pursue higher education and the obstacles hindering their enrollment. We conducted eleven focus group sessions, involving five distinct groups: students, parents, teachers, and counselors from public high schools, as well as two adult learner…

Community colleges serve many critical purposes for residents within their local service areas by providing relatively low-cost (Ma & Pender, 2023), open-access postsecondary education and workforce-focused training (Jacobs & Worth, 2019). A recent national survey of previously enrolled community college students finds that "gaining…

The Institute for Higher Education Policy's (IHEP) Equitable Value Explorer (EVE) data tool provides measures of economic value based on students' post-college earnings relative to the state in which their postsecondary institution is located. Such a broad geographic unit, however, may lead to inadequate comparisons for institutions like community…

Access to opportunities for higher education is a classic topic in the sociology of higher education, but studies on access to doctoral education are still rare. This paper drew on data from the 2016 National Master's Graduate Survey to analyze this issue, focusing on the effects of gender and the types of the institution on access to doctoral…

A growing number of university graduates delay workforce entry to reverse transfer to a community college for additional training. This trend is common in 2-year physical therapist assistant (PTA) programs where over 34% of all PTA students have a prior earned bachelor's degree. The problem addressed in this study is that little research is…

This study addressed the declining market share of students from the Peoples Republic of China at a university in the New England region of the United States. This study focused on six students from the People's Republic of China's lived experiences and how those experiences influence future enrollments. The process selected for this study was a…

The current paper examines associations between preschool cognitive and behavioral skills and indicators of college enrollment in a sample (n = 379) of primarily Black and Hispanic youth growing up in low-income areas of Chicago. Although we found that most early cognitive and behavioral skills were only weakly or moderately related to later…

Tuition resets decrease an institution's published tuition price to more closely align it with the actual net price most students pay. The strategy is employed to increase the institution's applicant pool, yielding more admits with the ultimate goal of increasing enrollment and net revenue for the institution. The research project examined…

"A Dream Derailed? Investigating the Causal Effects of College Closure on Student Outcomes" is the second of three planned novel reports from a collaborative research team of State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) and the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) Research Center, seeking to quantify the impacts of…

Background and Context: Women are severely underrepresented in computer science (CS). Understanding varied entry points into CS may promote women's participation in the field. Objective: This study identifies experiences that influenced women's matriculation into CS majors, and pathways into CS based on participants' enrollment in bachelor of arts…

This fact sheet presents the following statistical information on Hispanic higher education and Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) from 2023: (1) Hispanic demographics; (2) Hispanic enrollment in higher education; and (3) Hispanic-Serving Institutions. A 2021-22 enrollment snapshot of Hispanic undergraduate students headcount and number of…

The purpose of this study was to research the correlation between the academic achievement and enrollment data of students who attend Deer Park Community College who are majoring in Health Sciences. These students were categorized into four groups including subjects who are: traditional students who do not register for remediation courses;…

Enrollment levels and retention rates are two institutional factors that have seen a decline in the last five years and more. Previous research has documented the decline attributed to many different reasons. Resource allocations are a significant reason why enrollment levels and retention rates are declining at many higher education institutions.…

Multiple measures assessment (MMA) has gained considerable momentum over the past decade as an alternative to traditional test-based procedures for placing incoming students into developmental or college-level coursework in math and English at broad-access colleges. Compared to standardized tests, which measure student performance at a single…