Documenting Their Decisions: How Undocumented Students Enroll and Persist in College

Abstract

The absence of federal support leaves undocumented students reliant on state policies to financially support their postsecondary education. We descriptively examine the postsecondary trajectories of tens of thousands of undocumented students newly eligible for California’s state-aid program, using detailed application data to compare them to similar peers. In this context, undocumented students who apply and are eligible for the program use grant aid to attend college at rates similar to their peers. Undocumented students remain more likely to enroll in a community college rather than attend a broad-access 4-year college and have higher exit rates from 2-year colleges. However, undocumented students are equally likely to attend the more selective University of California system and across 4-year public colleges have persistence rates similar to their peers, showing that those who do attend 4-year colleges perform well.