College Proximity: Mapping Access to Opportunity

Abstract

The process by which students decide whether and where to attend college has been based most commonly on a college-choice model that is independent of the students' geographic context. However, the ability to attend college close to home is often among the most important factors that U.S. high school students, especially minorities and the socioeconomically disadvantaged, consider. The study presented here mapped the place of residence of a national sample of high school seniors, as well as the location of all colleges within commuting distance of each student, and showed that seniors have a wide range of colleges in proximity.Furthermore, after taking account of important student and zip code-level factors, the study found that each additional college in proximity is associated with a small but significant increase in the odds of applying to college, especially a four-year college. These findings suggest that researchers should stop treating the college-choice process as though it were independent of location and start situating this process within the geographic context in which it occurs. Sociology ofEducation 2009, Vol. 82 (April): 126-146 126T he process by which students decide whether and where to attend college has been based most commonly on a college-choice model that is independent of the students' geographic context. The frequently used three-stage model described by Hossler and Gallagher (1987) highlights the temporal sequence of the process: (1) the predisposition stage, which typically occurs during primary and secondary school and is made up of activities that influence a student's inclination to go to college (e.g., college preparation courses, meetings with guidance counselors, and preparation for entrance examinations); (2) the search stage, which typically occurs during high school and involves identifying specific institutions, gathering information, taking entrance examinations, and applying to colleges; and (3) the choice stage, which typically occurs toward the end of high school, when students receive admissions notices and financial aid offers and select an institution in which to enroll and attend. Although this model has proved to be extremely useful, its focus on the temporal sequence of the college-choice process has by and large taken the spotlight off the geographic context in which college choices are made. In particular, the search stage assumes that students give consideration to all appropriate institutions, regardless of where they are located. However, most students consider only a limited number of colleges, and this small set of institutions is largely determined by location.In the literature on housing, the term geography of opportunity has been used to describe the importance of residential location in determining educational (and other) opportunities (Galster and Killen 1995;Rosenbaum 1995). In that literature, decision making is a result not only of a youth's personal characteristics, but of the local opporat UQ Library on June 22, 2015 soe.sagepub.com Downloaded from

More Girls Go to College: Exploring the Social and Academic Factors Behind the Female Postsecondary Advantage Among Hispanic and White Students

“…The analyses presented here therefore underscore the complexity and diversity of the gendered patterns and predictors of college attendance, and suggest the need for more research on the potentially unique factors that may influence the paths to 2-year colleges. For example, recent work by Turley (2009) suggests that Hispanic youth's greater proximity to 2-year colleges rather than 4-year colleges in Texas and elsewhere is an important factor to consider when exploring differences in college trajectories.…”

Der Einfluss des lokalen Hochschulangebots auf die Studienwahl

“…Die unterschiedliche erreichbarkeit von Hochschulen tangiert aber auch die Frage der Chancengerechtigkeit (vgl. Turley 2009). Die geographische Dichte des Hochschulangebots und die Sensitivität der individuellen Nachfrage nach einem Studium in Abhängigkeit von der Distanz zwischen dem Wohnort und der nächstgelegenen Hochschule stellen daher für die Bildungspolitik wichtige größen dar.…”

“…bspw. Tinto 1973;McHugh und Morgan 1984;Sà et al 2004;Avery und Hoxby 2004;long 2004;Drewes und Michael 2006;Frenette 2006Frenette , 2009Turley 2009). Trotzdem ist nicht eindeutig klar, ob dieser Zusammenhang auch wirklich kausaler natur ist, denn die Schätzung der Korrelation könnte durch das Vorliegen von Endogenität verzerrt sein.…”

An Examination of the Expected Timing of Transitions into Adulthood among Rural Men and Women

“…Spohn, Crowther, and Lykins (1992) found that rural isolation affected the educational attainment of Appalachian youth largely through institutional barriers (e.g., lack of information about financial details). Other research has found that geographic proximity to college increases the likelihood that students will apply to college (Turley, 2009), highlighting the importance of geography in college pursuit.…”