Overcoming the odds : the benefits of completing college for unlikely graduates /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Brand, Jennie E., author.
Imprint:	New York : Russell Sage Foundation, [2023] ©2023
Description:	xxvii, 298 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.
Language:	English
Series:	The American sociological association's rose series in sociology Rose series in sociology.
Subject:	Education, Higher -- Social aspects. College choice -- Economic aspects. Universities and colleges -- Admission. Youth with social disabilities -- Education (Higher) Educational equalization. Education, Higher -- Social aspects. Educational equalization. Universities and colleges -- Admission. Youth with social disabilities -- Education (Higher)
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/13297868

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780871540089 0871540088 9781610448932
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:	"Debates about college access often do not carefully consider what is required to speak knowledgeably about the benefits of college degrees. First, we want to know what an individual's life would look like without a college education. Second, we need to consider unequal access to higher education. Who attends and completes college, and who does not? Third, we need to determine which benefits of college we consider and how diverse benefits differ across diverse graduates. Too often, the rewards valued in public and academic debate begin and end with wages. The traditional focus on wages does not capture all the life-enhancing effects of higher education. In this book, Jennie Brand assesses how a range of long-term benefits of four-year college degree completion differs across the population. Considering socioeconomic, family-level, social assistance, and civic outcomes measures, she concludes that colleges are far from failing disadvantaged students. Their returns to degrees are substantial: a college degree not only enables underprivileged students to circumvent unemployment, low-wage work, job instability, poverty, and social assistance but also increases their likelihood of engaging in civic society"--
Other form:	Online version: Brand, Jennie E., Overcoming the odds New York : Russell Sage Foundation, [2023] 9781610448932

Description
Summary:	Each year, millions of high school students consider whether to continue their schooling and attend and complete college. Despite evidence showing that a college degree yields far-reaching benefits, critics of higher education increasingly argue that college "does not pay off" and some students - namely, disadvantaged prospective college goers - would be better served by forgoing higher education. But debates about the value of college often fail to carefully consider what is required to speak knowledgeably about the benefits -what a person's life might look like had they not completed college, or their college counterfactual. In Overcoming the Odds sociologist Jennie E. Brand reveals the benefits of completing college by comparing life outcomes of college graduates with their college counterfactuals. <br> <br> <br> <br> Drawing on two cohorts of nationally representative data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics National Longitudinal Surveys program, Brand uses matching and machine learning methods to estimate the effects of college completion across students with varying likelihoods of completing four-year degrees. To illustrate her findings, Brand describes outcomes using matched vignettes of college and non-college graduates. Brand shows that four-year college completion enables graduates to increase wages and household income, while also circumventing unemployment, low-wage work, job instability, poverty, and social assistance. Completing college also increases civic engagement. Most of these benefits are larger for disadvantaged than for more advantaged students, rendering arguments that college has limited benefits for unlikely graduates as flawed. Brand concludes that greater long-term earnings, and less job instability and unemployment, and thus more tax revenue, less reliance on public assistance, and high levels of volunteering indicate that public investment in higher education for students from disadvantaged backgrounds yields far-reaching collective benefits. She asserts that it is better for our society when more people complete college.<br> <br> <br> <br> Overcoming the Odds is an innovative and enlightening exploration of how college can transform lives.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br>
Physical Description:	xxvii, 298 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.
Bibliography:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:	9780871540089 0871540088 9781610448932