Who Goes to Graduate School? Social and Academic Correlates of Educational Continuation after College

Abstract

Although sociologists have found direct links between parents' education and the high school and college educational attainments of their offspring, researchers have been surprised to find no parental effects on educational enrollments beyond college. Postgraduate matriculation appears to result from academic success in college, divorced from parents' educational capital. Using new data from the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study, the authors reexamine this issue and extend the literature by disaggregating graduate programs by type. They find that parents' education has no effect on their children's entry into MBA programs and only a small influence on entry into master's programs; however, there is a strong effect of parents' education on entry into first-professional and doctoral programs. The role of parental education is largely indirect, working primarily through the characteristics of a student's undergraduate institution, academic performance, educational expectations, and career values. In addition, college performance maintains a strong, independent effect on enrollment in graduate school. 0 ne outgrowth of what Kerr (1 991 :xii) Statistics, NCES 2000:286). The increase in referred to as "the great transforma-graduate degrees outpaced the rate of tion" of higher education in the growth in undergraduate degrees to such an United States has been a dramatic rise in the extent that whereas in 1960, one out of four scale and significance of postgraduate pro-degree recipients were graduate students, by grams. In terms of raw figures, whereas from 1997, the ratio was one out of three. In the 1960 to 1997, the number of bachelor's wake of the post-1 960 expansion, there is evidegrees awarded tripled, the number of mas-dence that graduate degrees became more ter's degrees, first-professional degrees important than ever before as passports to (including dentistry, medicine, optometry, high-paying, prestigious occupations osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, podiatry, (Cappell and Pipkin 1990; Kingston and veterinary medicine, chiropractic medicine, Clawson 1990; Useem and Karabel 1986). law, and theology), and doctoral degrees Although roughly one-third of higher edumore than quadrupled, from 120,437 to cation's human products are graduate stu-544,007 (National Center for Education dents, sociologists know little about the rela

Understanding graduate school aspirations: the effect of good teaching practices

“…Specifically, the more formally educated a student's parents are, the more likely the student applies to and enrolls in graduate school. For example, Mullen, Goyette, and Soares (2003) found that parental education is important for enrollment. In particular, the researchers found significant differences between parental education and students' enrollment into graduate school.…”

“…Several researchers have evaluated the influence of undergraduate academic achievement on post-baccalaureate enrollment (Baird, 1976;Ethington & Smart, 1986;Mullen, Goyette, & Soares, 2003;Zhang, 2005). In general, students who are successful academically during undergraduate education are more likely to continue their education in graduate school.…”

“…In general, students who are successful academically during undergraduate education are more likely to continue their education in graduate school. For example, Mullen, Goyette, and Soares (2003) found that a student's college GPA was an important variable for graduate school enrollment. More specifically, the researchers found that each one decile increase in GPA increases the "odds of entering a master's program by 13 percent, an MBA program by 20 percent, a first-professional program by 31 percent, and a doctoral program by 37 percent" (Mullen, Goyette, & Soares, 2003, p. 157).…”

“…Like aspirations and application, fields of study influence students' application to and enrollment in graduation education (Bedard & Herman, 2008;Heller, 2001;Malaney & Isaac, 1988;Sax, 2001;Mullen, Goyette, & Soares, 2003;Zhang 2005). For example, Mullen, Goyette, & Soares (2003) found that college major had strong effects on students' enrollment in graduate school. Students in biology, mathematics, science, and psychology are more likely to enroll compared to students in other fields.…”

Bildungsherkunft und Promotionen: Wie beeinflusst das elterliche Bildungsniveau den Übergang in die Promotionsphase? / Social Background and PhDs: How Does the Educational Background of Parents Affect the Likelihood of Entering Doctoral Studies?

“…Studien aus den USA, die den Zugang zu verschiedenen Formen postgradualer Bildung in Abhängig-keit von der sozialen Herkunft untersuchen, kommen teilweise zu widersprüchlichen Ergebnissen (Ethington & Smart 1986;Mare 1980;Mullen et al 2003;Stolzenberg 1994). In einer älteren Untersuchung fand Mare (1980), dass der Effekt der sozialen Herkunft von der Highschool bis zum postgradualen Studium mit dem Erreichen jeder nächst hçheren Bildungsstufe immer weiter abnimmt.…”