In this dissertation, I present an examination of the economics of education through three chapters. In the first paper, I study the overrepresentation of elite university graduates in senior positions in public administration. Using rich administrative data from Chile, I employ a stacked fuzzy regression discontinuity design to estimate the…

A review of the literature revealed the need to further explore continuing-generation college students attending community colleges. This case study sought to understand the choice process of continuing-generation, direct-entry college students who enrolled in Miami Dade College (MDC), a baccalaureate community college. This research was planned…

Institutions of higher learning today rely on tuition dollars to function. During a time when the pool of high school graduates is shrinking, colleges and universities must look to alternative target markets to meet enrollment goals, including those transferring from community college. Community college transfers have unique attributes that…

Leaders in four-year, public and private institutions have implemented international branch campuses to potentially increase revenue and promote institutional prestige. Although these efforts have received significant attention, they have not always been successful. Studies have identified the reputational risks often associated with international…

Using archival records preserved by Iowa's community colleges, private four-year colleges, and public universities, this dissertation examines how Iowa's established higher education institutions responded to and adjusted to the "presence" of new two-year colleges from 1965 to 1975. This decade was a critical period of development for…

This qualitative case study uses Wartman's (2014) Guiding Principles for High Level Searches to investigate the executive selection process. The study explores how members of the search committee, governing board, and search consultant perceive the method a community college used to select its permanent president. To examine the process, one…

The concept of branding holds the key to achieving organizational goals by determining the needs and wants of target markets (Nicolescu, 2009). The brand of a community college is influenced by the interactions these individuals have on campus or in public with college administrators, faculty, and staff (Black, 2008). As a result it is imperative…

This mixed-methods study analyzed data from 906 Ruffalo Noel Levitz Student Satisfaction Surveys (RNLSSS) at a two-year technical college in Wisconsin, to determine influences on participants' choices of programs in information technology (IT). Quantitative results showed that none of eight variables (i.e., cost, financial assistance, academic…

Effective community college leaders make a difference in the culture and performance of the institution. The research study sought to discover leadership strategies that lead to the achievement of high performance outcomes in community colleges. In 2013, the American Association of Community Colleges Competencies for effective leadership criteria…

Low socioeconomic urban students do not attend universities at a rate proportional to other populations. This perpetuates a cycle of recurrence and diminished potential benefits associated with degree attainment. The commonly ascribed Theory of Student Choice (Hossler, Braxton & Coopersmith, 1989) does not apply to this population. The purpose…

This study had a three-fold purpose: first, to assess the attitudes of student affairs administrators working in the Florida College System (FCS) about globalization, internationalization, and their strategies for effecting internationalization efforts at their community/state colleges. This study also investigated the relationship between student…

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that influenced college choice of students who recently enrolled (current freshmen and sophomores) in agriculture programs at Oklahoma's land-grant university, as compared to recently enrolled students (current freshmen and sophomores) in selected agriculture programs at public community colleges…

Relatively few studies have focused on two-year college BSN transfer students and the unique features that predict their educational outcomes. Conducting one-on-one interviews with seven students from one of three University of Wisconsin baccalaureate institutions who had transferred to a four-year institution from either a two-year University of…

This study sought to explain how high school seniors across the United States think about community colleges in the context of the college choice process. The study described what attributes are associated with the community college experience and what influences those attributes. Since a weak college choice process can contribute to later…