ASHE presentation

Just a quick post to attach a copy of the presentation I will be giving at the upcoming Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) conference in Vancouver this November. Here is a copy of the paper and below is an abstract of the piece.

“Meeting need and buying prestige: an analysis of institutional aid among public colleges and universities”

Abstract:
Institutionally-funded financial aid has been the fastest-growing item in most public colleges and university budgets during the past decade, yet little is known about what factors contribute to these expenditures or how aid is being distributed between need and no-need criteria. This study utilizes panel data analysis to conclude that increases in SAT scores and state merit-based aid significantly reduce the amount of institutional need-based aid, while greater shares of non-resident students result in greater expenditures on non-need-based aid. The share of low-income students and state/federal need-based grant programs do not appear to influence the provision of institutional aid among public institutions.

I am still teaching myself panel data analysis and how to implement two-stage least squares models. If you happen to read this paper, please forgive me in advance if my description of methods is less than par. To me, econometrics is attrition warfare; a never-ending battle with myself provides a humbling reminder that I don’t know as much as I think I know. Ah, the story of my life.

Dissertation prospectus

I’ve attached a copy of my dissertation prospectus, which is a general overview of my dissertation proposal. It’s just a quick two-page overview of my dissertation topic. I haven’t spent much time on this blog describing what my research questions are, data sources, methods, or policy relevance of my study.

So, in the next few posts I’ll try making more of an effort of describing why this research interests me, why it matters in the “big picture,” and how it can potentially add value to what we know within this small little world of higher ed policy.

Download file Hillman_Prospectus (pdf). Click again on next page.

Conference presentation

Next week, I’ll be down in Florida for the annual Association for the Study of Higher Education (here) research conference.  I’ve only been to the ASHE conference one other time, so I’m looking forward to round two and seeing some interesting presentations.  Last year, I presented some preliminary research I’ve done on tuition discouting practices at public colleges. After getting some positive feedback from folks at the conference, I decided to pursue this line of research for my dissertation. If you want to check out that 2007 presentation, you can click here (it’s a powerpoint file).

This year…