Social Background and Academic Determinants of Two-Year versus Four-Year College Attendance: Evidence from Two Cohorts a Decade Apart

The present paper examines determinants of access to two-year versus four-year colleges among college-going youth. Data from the NLS class of 1972 and the HSB class of 1980 senior high school cohorts are compared to evaluate changes in racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and gender constraints on enrollment patterns. Academic resource measures (i. e., test performance, high school grades, and high school curriculum) also are examined in order to assess the patterning and magnitude of such disparities when academic qualifications are equivalent. There is little evidence of diminished opportunity to attend a four-year college when the experiences of 1980 high school graduates are compared with those from 1972. In general, social background had little bearing on attendance patterns, although Hispanic youth were noticeably less likely than either whites or blacks to attend four-year colleges. Low-SES youth were modestly disadvantaged at both periods, but blacks were somewhat more likely than whites to enroll in four-year schools. Academic resource measures differentiated attendance patterns more than student background factors, but these differences too were not especially large. One implication is that, once youngsters have successfully negotiated the high school to college transition, opportunities to attend a four-year college as opposed to a two-year college are not greatly constrained by either social or academic considerations. In this sense, the postsecondary system is strikingly open. When academic resource variables are controlled, SES constraints on attendance patterns are greatly diminished, affecting only the enrollment prospects of white youngsters--and even for them only modestly. Blacks evidence the highest four-year attendance probabilities and Hispanics the lowest at all resource levels. In general, these disparities are greatest among youth who are most lacking in traditional academic credentials. Gender differences and cohort differences are small throughout.