College tuition costs and early career socioeconomic achievement: do you get what you pay for?

Abstract

The effects of college tuition costs on early career educational, occupational and economic achievements were estimated for a national sample of black and white college students. The findings suggest that attending a relatively high tuition college has a net positive influence on such outcomes as educational attainment, occupational status, income and women's entry into sex-atypical careers. These effects remained significant even when controls were made for student background characteristics (e.g., socioeconomic origins, secondary school achievement, educational and occupational aspirations); the academic selectivity, private/public control, size and graduate orientation of the college attended; and one's specific college experiences (e.g., academic major, academic achievement and social involvement). The findings are discussed in terms of several plausible causal mechanisms.