One camp argues that students would have a better shot at earning a degree if they avoided “undermatch” and went to more selective colleges, where the graduation rates tend to be higher, while the other camp—which includes opponents of affirmative action—argues that students have a worse chance at graduation when they fall victim to “mismatch,” when students go to competitive schools where they are said to be in over their heads.
A new study published this week in the American Educational Research Journal posits that scholars in both camps are wrong. It argues that the selectivity of an institution is neither much help nor a hindrance to graduation.
“We find at best weak evidence that institutions raise, via academic selectivity, the graduation rates of students who otherwise would have lower chances of graduating,” states the study, titled “College Selectivity and Degree Completion.”
“At the same time, we find little support for the hypothesis that academic mismatch has a significant impact on U.S. college completion,” the study states. “Put differently, from the standpoint of an individual student, choosing to enroll at a college whose average admissions test scores are substantially higher or lower does not appear to help or harm her chances of graduating.”
While some scholars and even the White House have sought to end undermatch, the new study seeks to dispel any notion that more selective colleges have a “secret sauce” that somehow gets students to graduate at higher rates than they would otherwise.
“It certainly won’t hurt you if you go to a more selective college,” said one of the study’s authors, Paul Attewell, a professor in Urban Education at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. “But the idea that just by going to a more selective college you would hugely increase your graduation chance is not true, either.”
