Equity

A baccalaureate credential from the University of Minnesota (UMN) is a valuable investment that provides significant returns in post-collegiate earnings. However, our own internal analyses have shown that inequities in initial earnings and salary growth exist, particularly for students from disadvantaged economic backgrounds. This brief summarizes new longitudinal research that answers a critical follow-up question: Can work-based, integrated learning experiences, specifically internships, reduce or eliminate earnings inequities for students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds? This...

This report responds to recent announcements by Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, and other institutions reinstating the SAT or ACT for admission. Widely publicized after aNew York Timesarticle and analysis by Harvard’s Opportunity Insights group, these announcement rest on two claims: that standardized tests outperform high school grades in predicting college success and that they may enhance diversity in admissions. Both claims falter...

Going to college has consistently conferred a large wage premium. We show that the relative premium received by lower-income Americans has halved since 1960. We decompose this steady rise in ‘collegiate regressivity’ using dozens of survey and administrative datasets documenting 1900–2020 wage premiums and the composition and value-added of collegiate institutions and majors. Three factors explain 80 percent of collegiate regressivity’s growth. First, the teachingoriented public universities where lower-income students are concentrated have relatively declined in funding, retention, and...