College Proximity: Mapping Access to Opportunity

The process by which students decide whether and where to attend college has been based most commonly on a college-choice model that is independent of the students' geographic context. However, the ability to attend college close to home is often among the most important factors that U. S. high...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociology of education 2009-04, Vol.82 (2), p.126-146
Main Author: Turley, Ruth N. López
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
College bound students
College Choice
College students
Colleges
Colleges & universities
Community colleges
Commuter Colleges
Commuting
Context Effect
Criteria
Decision Making
Family Relationship
Family School Relationship
Federal Aid
Federal funding
Geographic Location
Geography
Grade 8
Habitat
High school seniors
High School Students
High schools
Human ecology and demography
Individual Characteristics
Mapping
Minority groups
Opportunities
Opportunity
Parents
Place of Residence
Proximity
Residence
School Counselors
Secondary school students
Secondary Schools
Sociology
Sociology of education. Educational systems. Lifelong education
Statistical methods
Student Costs
Students
Studies
Tuition
Two year colleges
United States of America
Young Adults
ZIP codes
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Summary:The process by which students decide whether and where to attend college has been based most commonly on a college-choice model that is independent of the students' geographic context. However, the ability to attend college close to home is often among the most important factors that U. S. high school students, especially minorities and the socioeconomically disadvantaged, consider. The study presented here mapped the place of residence of a national sample of high school seniors, as well as the location of all colleges within commuting distance of each student, and showed that seniors have a wide range of colleges in proximity. Furthermore, after taking account of important student and zip code-level factors, the study found that each additional college in proximity is associated with a small but significant increase in the odds of applying to college, especially a four-year college. These findings suggest that researchers should stop treating the college-choice process as though it were independent of location and start situating this process within the geographic context in which it occurs.
ISSN:0038-0407
1939-8573
DOI:10.1177/003804070908200202