This dissertation study examines the ways that a large, public flagship university uses automatic-consideration merit scholarships to meet the goals of the institution, particularly as they relate to enrollment, university prestige, nonresident-to-resident balancing, and funding. Employing a mixed-methods design, the author uses qualitative and…

This dissertation studies the market for higher education and impacts of higher education policy on the market. In the first chapter, I estimate the short-run elasticity of supply of higher education using the rollout of state merit grant programs as plausibly exogenous variation in student demand for in-state higher education. I find that public…

This dissertation addressed the underrepresentation of African American women attaining doctoral degrees at universities across the nation. It also explored the McNair Scholars Program, and the role the program played in preparing African American female students for graduate school and completion of the doctoral degree. In line with the…

Institutional merit-based financial aid awards are widely utilized by enrollment management practitioners to attract and retain students desired by the institution and to increase net tuition revenue. While much research has been conducted on federal need-based aid and statewide merit aid, relatively few studies have been conducted on merit aid…

Given the increasing number of community college students aspiring to complete a bachelor's degree and the decrease in traditional college-bound high school graduates universities have started to focus their attention on the recruitment and retention of transfer students. The institution in this study is a large public research institution located…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between race/ethnicity and the college degree attainment of underrepresented racial minority (URM) students receiving a merit-aid scholarship. Using an institutional database from a highly selective public university, multiple statistical techniques were conducted to examine how degree…

This dissertation focuses on microeconomic topics in the fields of public, labor and education. Particularly, this dissertation evaluates state policies in higher education and develops a global measure for job quality. Chapter 1 studies how state merit aid programs affect undergraduate degrees earned in Science, Technology, Engineering and…