ABSTRACT
Generally speaking, the modern literature on the economic effect of college quality began with studies by Weisbrod and Karpoff (1968), Wales (1973), Solmon and Wachtel (1975), and Wise (1975) and recently has undergone a renaissance with works by Behrman, Rosenzweig, and Taubman (1996), Brewer and Ehrenberg (1996), Brewer et al. (1999), and Dale and Krueger (2002). Pascarella and Terenzini completed a summary and criticism in 1991. Not only were the results of studies of these issues important for academic and theoretical purposes, they were also important to prospective students and their parents who paid more of the increasing costs of higher education, especially at prestigious institutions (Ehrenberg, 2000).
