Undocumented College Students in the United States: In-State Tuition Not Enough to Ensure Four-Year Degree Completion

Dylan Conger () and Colin C. Chellman ()
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Dylan Conger: Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington University
Colin C. Chellman: Institutional and Policy Research, The City University of New York

Education Finance and Policy, 2013, vol. 8, issue 3, 364-377

Abstract: Using restricted-access data from one of the largest urban public university systems in the United States—where many undocumented students are eligible for in-state tuition—we review the literature on undocumented college students in the United States and provide a comparison of the performance of undocumented students to that of U.S. citizens and other legal migrants. Overall, undocumented students perform well in the short-term, earning higher grades and higher rates of course and associate degree completion than their U.S. citizen counterparts. But undocumented students are less likely to earn their bachelor's degrees within four years. This finding suggests that, despite their earlier college successes and their access to in-state tuition rates, at some point after enrollment, undocumented students experience higher costs to completing their bachelor's degrees than they had anticipated upon enrollment. We offer a number of policy considerations for university officials and policy makers who aim to help undocumented college students succeed in postsecondary institutions. © 2013 Association for Education Finance and Policy

Keywords: undocumented students; college students; in-state tuition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I22 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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