Examining African American
and White College Students’
Degree Aspirations From
1985-1999
Deborah Faye Carter, Angela M. Locks, and
Sonia DeLuca Fernández
University of Michigan
Introduction

African Americans tend to earn postsecondary
degrees in significantly fewer numbers than their
representation in the U.S. population.

Understanding educational aspirations can
assist us in structuring environments and
interventions that can help students plan to earn
college and graduate degrees.

College experiences actively contribute toward
increasing students’ interest in and commitment
to completing degrees.
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Research Questions

What affects African American students’ degree
aspirations and how does this analysis differ
compared to White students?

Is there a significant difference between students’
aspirations in the 1980s, early 1990s vs. the later
1990s?

How might the predictors of students’ degree
aspirations differ across the HERI and NCES
datasets?
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Data Sources

CIRP Freshman Survey data for the years 19851999

Beginning Postsecondary Students Study
(1990:1994).

Focus of presentation today is on CIRP. The
CIRP dataset included 500,000 students: all African
American students and a random sample of
approximately 250,000 White students.
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Methods & Procedures



Completed factor analytic procedures and
reliability analyses.
Multivariate regression analyses separately
for African American and White students in
CIRP.
Regressed degree aspirations in the
freshman year.
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Regression Models


The regression models predicted the
aspirations of African American and White
students similarly with the R2 equally .25 for
African American students and .27 for White
students.
The models differed in which variables
significantly affected the two groups’
educational goals.
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Background Characteristics



Proportionally more women in the African
American sample in comparison to the White
sample.
African American students came from lower
SES backgrounds than White students:
parental income and education.
Mean parental income for African Americans
was $30-$35,000 in comparison to over
$50,000 for White students.
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Background Characteristics Regression



Gender and SES have significant effects on
students’ aspirations. Female Black students
and male White students tend to have higher
aspirations.
Students from higher SES backgrounds
tended to have higher aspirations, and SAT
was a positive predictor for both groups of
students.
1996-1999 cohorts had higher aspirations
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Institutional Characteristics



African Americans were more likely to attend
institutions with lower selectivity, higher
proportions of African American students, and
slightly smaller enrollments than White
students.
Mean selectivity: 908 for African Americans,
1017 for White students.
Average Black enrollment: 37% for African
Americans, 5% for White students
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Regression Results



Student-faculty ratio was the only negative
predictor of students’ aspirations. Those
who attended institutions with lower
student-faculty ratios tended to have
higher aspirations.
Institutional size is a positive predictor.
Students attending institutions with larger
proportions of African Americans tended to
have higher aspirations.
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Regression Results: Pre-college
Experiences & Major



Hours per week spent talking with teachers
outside of class & tutoring other students had
positive relationships to degree aspirations.
Students who have high self-ratings on
emotional well-being and academic ability
have higher educational aspirations.
Students who were undeclared or majored in
unspecified fields tended to have higher
aspirations than declared majors – except for
Biological Sciences and Health.
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Financial Aid & Financial
Concerns – Regression Results



Working for pay in high school had a positive
effect on African American students’ degree
aspirations but this relationship was negative
for White students.
Choosing to attend their campus because of
low tuition had a negative relationship to
degree aspirations for both groups.
Choosing a campus because the student was
offered financial assistance was also a
negative predictor of aspirations.
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Summary



Student background characteristics seem to
have strong affects on students’ degree
aspirations.
Pre-college achievement also has strong
effects on aspirations.
Students seem to balance academic
considerations with financial ones in terms of
considering their future educational
attainment.
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Implications & Future Directions



As researchers and practitioners, we need to
continue to focus on financial aid and the kind
of information students receive during their
college planning and choice processes.
Students take into account levels of financial
awards in their assessment of future degree
attainment.
We plan to expand our analyses to perform
separate analyses by cohort group: does the
impact of financial differ for earlier cohorts?
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