Disparities in Higher Education Among Races

Abstract~

Resources are unequally distributed in the U.S., and this is a fact that most of us already know, but many may not know why. Certain factors contribute to this inequality, such as socioeconomic status and race. One of these resources in particular is higher education. Attending college is a goal that many adolescents have, but some may not have that opportunity. This is often due to the resources they receive- or do not receive, in high school, because students are often underprepared. This is also often due to not being able to afford college tuition. Therefore, for my project, I was interested in discovering what the causes were for the disparities among races we see in higher education.

Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1997), I find that there are significant disparities between race and the type of degree one receives. My data showed that 870 non-black/non-Hispanic individuals had a Bachelor’s degree, while black had only 256, Hispanic had 210, and mixed-race (non-Hispanic) trailed quite far behind at just 16 Bachelor’s degrees. While I did have other findings, this was my most significant statistic. My research, along with other literature further shows that there are still inequalities among races within higher education.