ABSTRACT
Geography plays a central yet often-overlooked role in shaping college opportunity in the United States. Most students attend college close to home, but the distribution of these colleges is highly uneven with some communities having several nearby options while others have few (or none). This chapter illustrates why the local context matters, particularly for students who are the least geographically mobile. It uses data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System to identify four different types of local higher education markets: deserts, refuges, mirages, and oases. We provide examples of each classification and discuss how college choice is likely to differ according to where one lives. We also discuss how researchers and policymakers can leverage geography to develop new ways of understanding, pinpointing, and addressing deeply rooted inequalities.
