Students Choosing Colleges: Understanding the Matriculation Decision at a Highly Selective Private Institution / Peter Nurnberg, Morton Schapiro, David Zimmerman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nurnberg, Peter.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Schapiro, Morton.

Zimmerman, David.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w15772.

NBER working paper series no. w15772

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Students Choosing Colleges

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2010.

Summary:

The college choice process can be reduced to three questions:

1) Where does a student apply?

2) Which schools accept the students?

3) Which offer of admission does the student accept?

This paper addresses question three. Specifically, we offer an econometric analysis of the matriculation decisions made by students accepted to Williams College, one of the nation's most highly selective colleges and universities. We use data for the Williams classes of 2008 through 2012 to estimate a yield model. We find that--conditional on the student applying to and being accepted by Williams--applicant quality as measured by standardized tests, high school GPA and the like, the net price a particular student faces (the sticker price minus institutional financial aid), the applicant's race and geographic origin, plus the student's artistic, athletic and academic interests, are strong predictors of whether or not the student will matriculate.

Notes:

Print version record

February 2010.