Search Results

Title: College Mismatch and Socioeconomic Stratification and Intergenerational Mobility for Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Conwell, Jordan Andrew
Pattillo, Mary
College Mismatch and Socioeconomic Stratification and Intergenerational Mobility for Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics
Presented: Seattle WA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2016
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): College Characteristics; College Enrollment; Ethnic Differences; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Mobility, Economic; Parental Influences; Racial Differences; Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Researchers have recently called attention to the issue of college mismatch – students attending colleges of better quality (overmatch) or worse quality (undermatch) than their academic ability would predict. To date, the literature has reached inconsistent conclusions on whether non-white students are more or less likely than white students to mismatch. Further, studies have not investigated whether variations in college mismatch by race affect later socioeconomic stratification and intergenerational mobility by race. In this study, we use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 to determine whether blacks and Hispanics were more or less likely than whites to attend a mismatched college and whether and how mismatch affected college-goers' socioeconomic life courses. Compared to whites, blacks and Hispanics were significantly more likely to overmatch and significantly less likely to undermatch in their college enrollments – consistent with the functioning of an affirmative action mechanism. College overmatch and undermatch had significant effects on college-goers' educational attainment, income earned after age 25, and intergenerational educational mobility from parents' years of schooling completed. Undermatching had negative effects on these outcomes, and overmatching had positive effects. Mismatch did not significantly affect college-goers' intergenerational income mobility from their parents' income rank. For many outcomes, compared to whites, non-white students received significantly higher positive returns to matching, significantly worse penalties for undermatching, and comparably high positive returns to overmatching. Our study adds college mismatch to understandings of higher education's role in processes of stratification and mobility and contributes to debates regarding affirmative action.
Bibliography Citation
Conwell, Jordan Andrew and Mary Pattillo. "College Mismatch and Socioeconomic Stratification and Intergenerational Mobility for Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics." Presented: Seattle WA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2016.