The Effect of Level of College Entry on Midcareer Occupational Attainments

Abstract

The economic benefits of attending community colleges, as opposed to other higher education sectors, have been a subject of intense debate since the 1960s. Using the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), this study compares the midcareer occupational attainments (in terms of income and occupational prestige) of students who began postsecondary study at community colleges and students who began postsecondary study at 4-year colleges. Study participants were between 14 and 22 years of age in 1979; income and occupational prestige data used in the analyses were the latest available for the respondents from the 1996, 1998, and 2000 waves of the NLSY79 study. Controlling for a variety of student background characteristics, regression analysis and matched models using propensity scores revealed that the gap in earnings between the community college and 4-year college entrants remained small for most groups, with the exception of Black and Hispanic males. This overall finding runs counter to what one might expect on the basis of previous studies showing that at early stages of one’s career, community college entrants hold relatively low-prestige jobs in comparison to those held by 4-year college entrants and that the income gaps between the two groups might therefore be expected to increase over time.

Factors Affecting Persistence and Transfer of Low-Income Students at Public Two-Year Institutions

“…Community college students are incredibly diverse and do not share common goals for attendance (Conway, 2010;Levey, 2010). Some aspire to obtain a degree or transfer, but many others attend for self-improvement, career advancement, and job skill development (Cohen & Brawer, 2008;Seidman, 1993Seidman, , 1995Summers, 2003;Voorhees, 1987;Voorhees & Zhou, 2000).…”