| Pedro Villarreal
Pennsylvania State University
Delaying the postsecondary education dream: A discrete-time survival analysis of financial aid information effects on time-to-initial enrollment
FINAL REPORT:
Even as increases in college enrollments among the many racial and socioeconomic status groups (over the past several decades) have materialized, gaps between these groups continue to persist (Perna & Swail, 2001). Particularly high gaps exist among and between racial minority and majority as well as high- and low-income students (Perna & Swail, 2001; National Center for Education Statistics, 2005).
Analyses of the NELS dataset suggested that the timing of college enrollment is useful in understanding the inequities in postsecondary education attendance by race, ethnicity, and SES. The results also confirm that financial aid information may be important in the college enrollment process but may play no discernable role in the timing of initial postsecondary education enrollment. The mixed results of these further substantiate a need to apply different models and theories to the college enrollment phenomenon. The mixed results also suggest the need to further investigate this line of inquiry in the future.
The results suggest that financial aid information is not directly related to college enrollment although some relationships exist when examining the various research questions. However, no visible relationship was found between information and the timing of initial postsecondary education enrollment. Furthermore, the relationship between SES and race to the timing of postsecondary education enrollment is consistent with current theory and research. The relationship between the timing of enrollment to the institution student enrolls at is also consistent with theory.
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