Policy Topics

Postsecondary pathways

Content type
Showing 31 - 46 of 46 results
Transitions into the labor market

An Empirical Analysis of the Consequences of Major Choice Using Texas Administrative Data

June 2018
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Kevin Stange, Rodney Andrews, Scott Imberman, Michael Lovenheim
The central aim of this project is to estimate the causal effect of students’ college major choices  on their postsecondary and labor market outcomes. The combination of a research design that can identify causal effects of major choice with rich administrative data that allow us to track students from high school through college and into the labor market is novel in the higher education literature and will provide new and important evidence on how college major choices affect students during college and...
Two students collaborating on a computer assignment
Transitions into the labor market

Skills, Majors, and Jobs: Does Higher Education Respond?

September 2019
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Kevin Stange, Steven Hemelt, Brad Hershbein
Higher education institutions play an outsized role in facilitating skill development, yet employers regularly cite a gap between the skills they need and those new college graduates possess. One explanation for this disconnect is that technological change, industrial restructuring, and international trade are continuously evolving the demand for skills in the labor market, but that investment is slow to respond. This project uses several quasi-experimental techniques, and the universe of all online job ads paired with novel data on college course-taking over the past decade, to study how...
Two students walking on a college campus
Postsecondary preparation & success

College Acceleration Programs in Michigan

September 2020
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Kevin Stange, Sabrina Solanki, Jonathan Hartman, Nicole Wagner Lam, William Metz, Yincheng Ye
In 2020, the Michigan Legislature asked that the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) produce a report analyzing trends in college acceleration program participation in Michigan and the extent to which postsecondary access and outcomes is improved as a result of these programs. To meet these aims, MDE has partnered with EPI to study enrollment, performance, and postsecondary outcomes for students who enrolled in international baccalaureate (IB), advanced placement (AP), dual or concurrent enrollment (DE), early or middle college high schools (EMC), and career and technical education (CTE)...
Student writing in a journal
Postsecondary preparation & success

Understanding Geographic Differences in Postsecondary Decision Making and Financial Aid Interventions

January 2021
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Susan Dynarski, Elizabeth Burland, Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija, Stefanie DeLuca, Katherine Michelmore
This study gathers and analyzes data from qualitative interviews with high school students in Michigan. These interviews ask students to describe their college decision making process and to what extent financial aid programs or interventions were effective at influencing their postsecondary decisions. The information gathered through this project provides vital insight, directly from the student perspective, on how financial aid interventions work and who they work for. Moreover, this project sheds light on the link between postsecondary inequality and student decision-making. Finally, the...
A block M on the ground on University of Michigan's campus
Postsecondary preparation & success

HAIL Scholars: Increasing Economic Diversity at a Flagship University

January 2014
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Susan Dynarski, Katherine Michelmore, Meghan Oster, Stephanie Owen, Elizabeth Burland, Shwetha Raghuraman
EPI researchers and University of Michigan administrators developed and piloted the HAIL scholarship research program to attract low-income, high-achieving students to consider applying to and enrolling in the university. The project addresses three issues known to affect college application behavior among low-income, high-achieving students: uncertainty about their suitability for an elite school, over-estimates by students and parents of the net cost of college, and procedural barriers such as aid applications. The intervention targets low-income, high-achieving students in Michigan, as...
University of Michigan's HAIL Scholarship
Postsecondary preparation & success

Go Blue Community College Project

September 2021
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Susan Dynarski, Kevin Stange, Silvia Robles, Katherine Michelmore
The barriers facing community college students are numerous. An elite higher education institution, like the University of Michigan, can play a transformative role in the economic mobility of low-income students through programs like HAIL Scholars, but relatively few low-income students ever matriculate at such institutions. Community colleges are  good places to find high-achieving, low-income students who would benefit from further enrollment at institutions like U-M. In this project, researchers will develop and implement a randomized controlled trial of an intervention that aims to...
Go Blue Community College Project

Susan Dynarski: State of Education in Michigan

Apr 25, 2013 0:31:22

Susan Dynarski discusses the state of education in Michigan and how college-going rates throughout Michigan are affected by race, income, and quality of high school education.

Higher education and economic growth in Michigan panel

Dec 10, 2009 1:25:00

John Cherry, Mary Sue Coleman, Michael Hansen, Mark Murray, and moderator John Austin address the past, present, and future of higher education and economic growth in Michigan. Edited video to be posted 12/14. December, 2009.