Pathways to College across Two Youth Cohorts

Carolina Milesi, University of Chicago

This study compares the educational trajectories of students from two different cohorts born approximately 20 years apart. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, this paper examines whether and how postsecondary educational trajectories have changed for students who mainly attended college in the 1980's versus those who mostly attended college in 2000's. This project describes how the process of college enrollment, college persistence, and college completion have changed throughout this period and assesses whether, as a result of these different trajectories, socioeconomic inequality has increased, decreased or remained the same.