With a focus on possible gender differences, this study used 2003-2013 data from the "Survey of Doctorate Recipients" to examine individual, institutional, and early employment factors that contribute to career paths of recent doctorates who enter postsecondary academic appointments. Findings showed some noteworthy differences by gender…

In an era of increased accountability for colleges and concerns about an affordable education, it is useful to understand whether students can adequately manage the debt burden they hold after leaving higher education. In 2015, Texas called for cumulative undergraduate debt to be 60% or less of public institution graduates' first-year earnings by…

Each year, roughly 30% of first-year students at US baccalaureate institutions do not return for their second year and billions of dollars are spent educating these students. Yet, little quantitative research has analyzed the causes and possible remedies for student attrition. What's more, most of the previous attempts to model attrition at…

In this article, I utilize a regression discontinuity design to estimate the effects of Tulsa Achieves--a prevalent and understudied type of tuition-free college program. In contrast to concerns regarding tuition-free community college suppressing bachelor's degree attainment, I find that Tulsa Achieves increased the likelihood of transferring to…

Transfer articulation agreements are employed by institutions of higher education and state legislatures alike to improve transfer efficiency between two-year and four-year institutions. These agreements often aim both to increase transfer rates and baccalaureate degree completion and to decrease time to degree. Studies exploring the efficacy of…

The cost of post-secondary education (PE) continues to increase, which has contributed to elevating federal loan demand, and as of the fourth quarter of 2020, equaling a debt of $1.56 trillion in the US. The purpose of this research was to compare two post-secondary institutions for specific alignment with the local labor market, examine…

The relationship between study success and the nature of 550 first-year law students' study processes was investigated using a modified version of the Approaches to Learning and Studying Inventory. The students were classified into four study profiles according to their approaches to learning, indicating the nature of their study processes. In…

We generate selection-adjusted NPV and IRR estimates for a bachelor's degree in the U.S. which account for time-to-graduation, debt financing and tuition levels. We find that a college degree is generally worthwhile, but the private value of the investment is a declining function of time-to-graduation. Selection-adjustments show that for students…

Graduation efficiency is of top concern for institutions of higher education throughout the world. Increasingly, accountability metrics have come under scrutiny as policymakers seek to ensure public resources are efficiently used. Traditionally, higher education policymakers in the USA and Europe have used graduation rate as an accountability…

We explore generalizability and fairness across sociodemographic groups for predicting on-time college graduation using a national dataset of 41,359 college applications. Our features include sociodemographics, institutional graduation rates, academic achievement, standardized test scores, engagement in extracurricular activities, and work…

This study examines the effects of undergraduate students participating in independent research with faculty members on four-year graduation and graduate/professional degree aspirations. We analyzed four-year longitudinal data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education using multiple analytic techniques. The findings support the…

Low completion rates and increased time to degree at U.S. colleges are a widespread concern for policymakers and academic leaders. Many "full time" undergraduates currently enroll at 12 credits per semester despite the fact that a bachelor's degree cannot be completed within 4 years at that credit-load. The "academic momentum"…

Since mid-2007, the United States has experienced the direst economic recession since the Great Depression. While considerable institutional resources have been spent on boosting 4-year graduation rates, many college students purposefully delayed graduation, waiting to enter the labor market until the overall economic situation had improved. The…

Colleges offer remedial coursework to help students enrolling in post-secondary education who are not adequately prepared to succeed in college-level courses. Despite the prevalence of remediation, previous research presents contradictory findings regarding its short- and long-term effects. This paper uses a doubly robust inverse probability…

The discrepancy in the empirical literature surrounding distance education (DE) coursetaking among community college students has led to the online paradox, where short-term or more proximal academic outcomes associated with DE coursetaking are negative, but the long-term or distal academic outcomes are positive. Importantly, no previous study has…