| Abstract: | Two previous studies have used the National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey ( NPSAS ) to examine the persistence of two-year college students. We used NPSAS:96 and found that tuition had a small negative effect on within-year persistence. Debtload was significant and negatively associated with persistence at low and middle levels of debt, but significant and positively associated with persistence at high levels of debt. We explored the implications of these findings and compared our research to the previous studies. This study used NPSAS:96 to research the persistence of two-year college students. We found that, while background and college experience variables influenced persistence, students were 0.18% less likely to persist for each $100increase intuition, more likely to persist if they received subsidies, and 15.96% more likely to persist for every $1,000 in student loan debt outstanding. |
