College Seen to Aid Disadvantaged Youths the Most

Students Less Likely to Do Postsecondary Work Reap Biggest Rewards

The students who are least likely to attend postsecondary education are the very ones who stand to derive the greatest economic benefit from earning a college degree, according to a study scheduled for publication last week in the American Sociological Review .

The study found that college graduates whose demographic and academic backgrounds suggested they’d be among those least likely to go to college—including black, Latino, and low-income students, and those whose parents did not attend postsecondary education—got the biggest bump in income from their degrees.

Young people with more college-bound characteristics, including coming from more advantaged, educated families, did not get the same financial boost, according to the study’s authors, Jennie E. Brand, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Yu Xie, a University...