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College tuition costs and early career socioeconomic achievement: do you get what you pay for?

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Abstract

The effects of college tuition costs on early career educational, occupational and economic achievements were estimated for a national sample of black and white college students. The findings suggest that attending a relatively high tuition college has a net positive influence on such outcomes as educational attainment, occupational status, income and women's entry into sex-atypical careers. These effects remained significant even when controls were made for student background characteristics (e.g., socioeconomic origins, secondary school achievement, educational and occupational aspirations); the academic selectivity, private/public control, size and graduate orientation of the college attended; and one's specific college experiences (e.g., academic major, academic achievement and social involvement). The findings are discussed in terms of several plausible causal mechanisms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Education (M/C 147), University of Illinois at Chicago, Box 4348, 60680, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Ernest T. Pascarella, John C. Smart & Mark A. Smylie

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  1. Ernest T. Pascarella
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  2. John C. Smart
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  3. Mark A. Smylie
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Pascarella, E.T., Smart, J.C. & Smylie, M.A. College tuition costs and early career socioeconomic achievement: do you get what you pay for?. High Educ 24, 275–290 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00128447

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