Evaluating Impact of Student Debt on Early Career Choices
Description: The U.S. scientific community and industry groups have observed that the United States is not producing
sufficient numbers of skilled native workers to meet demand, especially in the physical sciences,
computer science, and engineering fields that drive innovation. Merit-based aid, for example,
scholarships and fellowships, reduces both the immediate cost to students of investing in higher
education, and students' longer-term risk of high cumulative student debt loads after graduation. This
project will evaluate both efficacy and consequences of merit awards for increasing
retention of women and racial/ethnic minority students in STEM degree programs, and in the scientific
workforce after graduation. The project examines the extent of any observed effects of merit aid
on underrepresented students' early career choices are specifically due to reducing students' risk of higher
cumulative debt. This research aims to inform policies and institutional strategies to retain U.S. students
and graduates in science and engineering careers. In addition, because graduates in scientific and
technical fields also have greater expected lifetime earnings, encouraging broader participation in these
fields by historically underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities, first-generation college students, and other
economically-disadvantaged individuals may help to address persistent and growing socioeconomic
inequality.
The project will employ linear and nonlinear econometric estimation for causal inference, leveraging two
existing data sources. First, using newly-developed institutional administrative data from a large
public Minority-Serving Institution with student-level observations matched to publicly available
statistical data, the project will assess whether income-contingent merit aid in particular, the U.S.
Department of Education SMART grants, or prior community college or associate's degree transfer
credit affected STEM degree completion among observably STEM-interested undergraduate students.
Then, using longitudinal survey data under restricted-use license from the NSF National Center for
Science and Engineering Statistics, the project will estimate the influence of different higher education
funding mechanisms on students' cumulative debt load at graduation, and further whether higher
cumulative student debt deters recent graduates in STEM fields from pursuing science and engineering
occupations.
Funder: National Science Foundation
Amount: $230,600
Funding type: grant
Funder scheme: Standard Grant
Start date: 2017-08-01
End date: 2019-09-30
Investigator: Margaret Blume-Kohout
Institution: Colgate University
Funded outputs count: 1
Funder award ID: 1735883
OpenAlex ID: G5487872003