Graduation Year

2026

Date of Submission

4-2026

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

Reader 1

Serkan Ozbeklik

Abstract

Women have outpaced men in college enrollment for over four decades, yet the mechanisms driving this gap remain debated. This paper replicates and updates a 2002 study about the gender gap in college attendance using the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), a nationally representative cohort of ninth graders followed through 2016. Employing separate linear probability models by gender, sequential female coefficient regressions, and an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, I find that differences in non-cognitive skills – measured by grades, homework habits, and behavioral engagement – account for approximately 75 percent of the gender gap in college attendance, reducing it to statistical insignificance. These results hold for both the full sample and a lower-income subsample. The raw gap has narrowed since Jacob’s era, perceived returns to schooling play a diminished role, and the college attendance process has converged across genders, but the fundamental finding endures: women attend college at higher rates primarily because they demonstrate stronger behavioral engagement in school.

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