Post-Secondary Enrollment Decisions of High School Students: The Effect of Socioeconomic Status

Abstract

Discrepancies exist in the type of students who attend, and graduate from, post-secondary institutions. This study investigates the impact of socioeconomic status on students' enrollment decisions using the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS:2002). Using an ordinary least square (OLS) model specif cation, attendance is regressed against a combination of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The findings reveal that the statistical significance of the independent variables changes based on the inclusion of school income or parental income categories. Differences were observed among sex, race, standardized test scores, student work hours, and parental educational attainment variables.