This paper estimates the heterogeneous labor market effects of enrolling in higher education short-cycle (SC) programs. Expanding access to these programs might affect the behavior of some students (compliers) in two margins: the expansion margin (students who would not have enrolled in higher education otherwise) and the diversion margin…

Largely introduced in the early 2000s, college postgraduate credentials are a relatively new type of Canadian college credential, which typically require a postsecondary credential (e.g., a college diploma or bachelor's degree) as a prerequisite for entry. They are generally directed at providing career-specific skills, and frequently incorporate…

Policymakers enacted a series of reforms in the mid-2000s that significantly expanded benefits in the federal student loan program for students pursuing graduate degrees. These reforms allow students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance for their degrees and use an Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) program that offers loan forgiveness after 20…

Community colleges have been hailed as a "cornerstone of American higher education", and act as an important access point to post-secondary education for a wide range of students, particularly socioeconomically disadvantaged students and underrepresented minorities. However, community colleges have also been criticized for poor…

The Association of Departments of English (ADE) Ad Hoc Committee on English Majors' Career Preparation and Outcomes was charged with reporting on career outcomes for English majors and minors; gathering case studies and other forms of evidence of departments' effective strategies and curricular innovations for working with students on career…

Local teacher recruitment through "grow-your-own" programs is a prominent strategy to address workforce shortages and ensure that incoming teachers resemble, understand, and have strong connections to their communities. We exploit the staggered rollout of the Teacher Academy of Maryland career and technical education certificate program…

This study investigates community college skills builders--students who enroll for a short time, take courses concentrated in career and technical education (CTE), are highly successful in their coursework, but typically leave college without a postsecondary credential. Drawing on administrative data from Colorado, Ohio, Michigan, and California,…

School concentrated disadvantage has been linked to poorer academic achievement and psychosocial functioning in prior research. The current study expands upon prior examinations of school concentrated disadvantage by applying a measurement approach first described by Michelmore and Dynarski in 2017, where eligibility for free and reduced-price…

Community college bachelor's (CCB) programs have only existed for a few decades, yet now reach 25 states. Since 1989, both state policies allowing these programs and the number of CCB programs itself has grown steadily. A body of research on CCBs is growing in the wake of changing state policy and the growth of new programs. This literature review…

Astronomy PhD recipients generally follow three main outcomes after receiving their degrees: they accept a postdoctoral position, a non-postdoctoral temporary position, or a potentially permanent position. To learn more about these outcomes, AIP annually asked new astronomy PhDs about their immediate post-degree outcomes. For the classes of 2018,…

This current dissertation used case study (Yin, 2018) to examine United States female college students' perceptions of their financial literacy, especially with respect to their debt accumulation and the gender wage gap, at a public, 4-year institution in New Jersey. It answered the following research questions: How are student debt, financial…

Analysing wage differentials due to educational investments within occupations can explain the persistent wage inequality in western industrialised countries, such as Germany. This article contributes to the discussion by examining occupation-specific variance in wage returns for men working full-time in Western Germany between 1976 and 2010. We…

Despite the growing evidence of informational interventions on college and major choices, we know little about how such light-touch interventions affect the gender gap in STEM majors. Linking survey data to administrative records of Chinese college applicants, we conducted a large-scale randomized experiment to examine the STEM gender gap in the…

According to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey, 67% of Americans support raising the federal minimum hourly wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour, with 41% strongly supporting the increase. Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour has been the battle cry for many members of Congress, while others have opposed or expressed concern regarding, such…

The recent Supreme Court decision NCAA vs Alston (June 2021) has heightened interest in the benefits and costs of participation in sports for student athletes. Anecdotes about the exploitation of student athletes were cited in the opinion. This paper uses panel data for two different cohorts that follow students from high school through college…