Document Type

Paper

Publication Date

4-21-2020

Faculty Mentor

Jennifer VanGilder

Abstract

From the years 1960 to 1997, Bachelor’s Degrees in the United States tripled. More interestingly though, that same time period saw both Master’s and Doctorate degrees in fields such as business, medicine and law quadruple with about a third of students having graduate degrees by 1997. With upwards of 3 million students to enroll in post-baccalaureate programs in 2017, this paper aims to look at personal factors such as: the number of children someone has, the ages of those children, whether or not the employer is paying for the student to attend graduate school, whether the student is married, and what the race and gender of the student is and if these factors increase or decrease the likelihood of a student obtaining a post-baccalaureate degree. Using SAS and econometric testing, research finds that using the years 2003 and 2017: students in 2017 are more likely to attend post-baccalaureate programs than those in 2003 if employers pay for their education. In addition, students in 2017 are less likely to enroll in post-baccalaureate programs than those in 2003 if they have a child under the age of 6. Lastly, students in 2017 are less likely to enroll in post-baccalaureate courses if they are married compared to 2003.

Comments

Presented as part of the Ursinus College Celebration of Student Achievement (CoSA) held April 23 – April 30, 2020.

The downloadable file is a poster on the findings of my research paper for Seminar in Economics.

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