College Graduation and Educational Aspiration Among Low-Income College Students

Background and Purpose: Low-income college students experience huge barriers to completing their degrees and furthering their educational attainment after college. However, the rate of entering college has significantly increased in recent decades. Several factors contribute to a student’s ability to complete their degree on time, and the interest and utilization of high-impact practices (HIPs) is growing among higher education institutions as it is believed to promote successful student outcomes. HIPs include extracurricular activities, such as service learning, internships, conducting research with faculty, and paid job experiences, as well as curricular activities. Although the concept of HIPs is becoming prevalent with the assumption that it is potentially helpful, it is unclear whether HIPs are impactful among low-income college students for their college completion and beyond. Furthermore, it is unclear whether particular HIPs are more impactful than other HIPs. To fill this gap, this study examined whether participating in each HIP has an impact on success in college among low-income college students.

Methods: The WSA Longitudinal Survey (WSALS) was conducted among those who participated in the Washington State Achievers Scholarship program which supports 16 high schools from low-income neighborhoods for ten years (2001–2010). This study used baseline (2003) and two follow-up (2006 and 2009) surveys of 2003 cohort of WSALS. We restricted the sample to students who entered college in the Fall of 2003, and the final sample included 301 low-income college students. The dependent variables were the level of aspiration for college completion and graduate education and whether a student completed a bachelor’s degree within 6 years. Independent variables are participation in each extracurricular HIP, i.e., community services, internship, paid job, working with faculty members, and leadership experiences. The inverse propensity score treatment weighting method was used to consider the selection bias into HIPs. Several covariates were included to measure the propensity scores using logistic regression models, including gender, race, parents’ educational background, and college enrollment status.

Results: The results show that working with faculty members (b = 0.12, p < .05) and serving in leadership roles (b = 0.12, p < .05) are significantly related to college completion aspirations. Participating in an internship (b = 0.15, p < .05) has a significant impact on graduation within six years among low-income college students. However, no HIPs were significantly related to aspiration for graduate education other than marginal significant impact of leadership (b = 0.15, p < . 10).

Conclusions and Implications: These findings demonstrate the importance of students from all backgrounds participating in extracurricular HIPs and higher education institutions and seeking ways to implement and improve the utilization of HIPs. Considering the limited time and resources, more impactful HIPs may have more emphasis over other HIPs. We found that certain HIPs, i.e., internship experience, working with faculty members, and taking leadership positions were particularly impactful among this population. This study also suggests more research is necessary to further our understanding of the impact of HIPs beyond college completion and on the employment of college graduates growing up in low-income families.