ESSAYS IN HIGHER EDUCATION ECONOMICS

One of the main issues at the forefront of higher education policy discussions in the last decade concerns the under-representation of low-income and minority students at our nation’s more selective colleges and universities. This dissertation focuses on this issue by examining the factors that impact on the college application decisions of low-income and minority students, as well as their success in selective colleges and universities after matriculation and finally by investigating how the use of merit-based financial aid programs affects the representation of low-income and minority students and other institutional spending patterns. The first essay uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth: 1997 to examine how the distance from one’s home to the nearest selective college or university affects a student’s decision to apply to a selective college or university. Students that live near to a selective colleges or university may be more likely to apply to this type of institution, both because of the lower costs, and also possibly due to increased knowledge of the opportunities available at this type of college. The results show that as distance to a selective college decreases, students are more likely to appl