Biography: Stefanie DeLuca is the James Coleman Professor of Social Policy and Sociology at the Johns Hopkins University, Director of the Poverty and Inequality Research Lab, and Research Principal at Opportunity Insights at Harvard University. She co-authored Coming of Age in the Other America (with Susan Clampet-Lundquist and Kathryn Edin), which was named an Outstanding Academic Title from the American Library Association and won the William F. Goode Award from the American Sociological Association. Her work has been funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Spencer Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Abell Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, National Academy of Education, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Department of Education, among others. She contributes frequently to national and local media, including The Atlantic, Baltimore Sun, The Economist, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and National Public Radio. Stefanie has been invited to share her research to support policy recommendations at the federal level at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and has provided briefings and testimony for several state legislatures and in federal court on behalf of the plaintiffs in the Baltimore Thompson v. HUD housing desegregation case. She currently serves on a Federal Research Advisory Commission at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Stefanie’s other awards and honors include the Publicly Engaged Scholar Award from the Community and Urban Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association, Scholar of the Year by the National Alliance of Resident Services in Assisted and Affordable Housing, William T. Grant Faculty Scholars Award, Johns Hopkins University Alumni Excellence in Teaching Award, and election to the Sociological Research Association.

“Colleges that obviously don’t have what you need: Risk, Social Mobility and the Postsecondary Decisions of Low-Income Students”
Abstract: While postsecondary education enrollment rates have soared over the last few decades, dilemmas remain about how to support young adults as they navigate paths after high school. On the one hand, postsecondary education plays a vital role in promoting intergenerational mobility, increasing earnings, and improving job quality. On the other hand, there are large and growing gaps in college attendance, college quality, and college completion rates by family income, leaving many young adults with only ‘some college’ and a relatively unsupported and sooner-than-expected transition to work. As a policy response, selective colleges and universities have tried to increase opportunities for low-income students on their campuses, with some significantly investing in financial aid expansions and other supportive interventions. One example is an experimentally evaluated intervention at the University of Michigan (UM) called the HAIL Scholarship Study, which tests whether a personalized offer of a guaranteed four-years of financial aid can increase enrollment of students from low-income families. HAIL has been very successful, more than doubling application and enrollment at UM among Michigan students from low-income families. However, one-third of the students who received the HAIL offer never applied to UM and one-fifth of those admitted did not attend UM. How do we explain such decisions? We use qualitative interviews with 136 low-income high-achieving high school seniors from the HAIL intervention to understand how they experienced and assessed risk in the college decision-making process. We find that low-income students –even high-performing low-income students with the tuition-guarantee—worry about whether the investment in a four-year degree is worth it. In particular, we observe a profound fear of failure as students worry that they will not complete their bachelor’s degrees and/or they worry that their college education will not pay off in terms of job or financial stability. The fear of non-completion seems to stem from several sources, including: the inability to perform well academically while at a selective institution; indecision about major and finding something of interest that will lead to a solid career; being away from social support; and concerns about shocks that might occur to derail them. As a result of this risk assessment, students enact a number of mitigation strategies to get a better sense of what they want to do, many resulting in an indefinite delay of their college enrollment.