CLARKSVILLE, TN – Five business students at Austin Peay State University set a goal last year to understand how college majors and demographics influence long-term earnings. While studying data on 1,058,246 students, they unintentionally began documenting the blueprint for their own success.
The study, recently published in the Journal of International Education in Business and co-authored by Daniela Diaz Campos, Sarah Ahlheit, Katherine Thrash, Kade Tjaarda, and Carter Black, analyzes data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) to examine wage trajectories for over a million college graduates between 2009 and 2022.
Under the guidance of faculty mentors Dr. Stephanie Bilderback and Dr. Matt Hampton, the team examined how factors such as workforce experience, age, gender, race, marital status, immigrant status, family size, and industry affect wage growth over time…