Since the creation of Federally subsidized loans in the late 1950s, trends in higher education have been characterized by exorbitant increases in tuition costs and student loan debt. I frame the analysis of this thesis by first synthesizing current theory on factors that are driving increases in tuition costs. Using Common Data Set data, I explore trends in tuition costs within the past decade and examine the impact of changes in student borrowing behavior on rates of application at top-tier liberal arts colleges and flagship universities. I find that tuition costs are increasing at rates that outpace GDP and CPI measures, but only marginally so. I also find that changes in parent loan borrowing and all other loan borrowing are statistically significant, but not economically significant, in their effect on application rates. I conclude by discussing the implications of my results and potential for future research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CLAREMONT/oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:cmc_theses-2689 |
| Date | 01 January 2017 |
| Creators | Kuosman, Kathleen E |
| Publisher | Scholarship @ Claremont |
| Source Sets | Claremont Colleges |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | CMC Senior Theses |
| Rights | © 2017 Kathleen E Kuosman, default |
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