[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-599045-105":59,"doc-detail-599045-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","rethinking-the-cooling-out-hypothesis-for-the-21st-century-the-impact-of-financial-aid-on-students-educational-goals","Rethinking the Cooling Out Hypothesis for the 21st Century - The Impact of Financial Aid on Students’ Educational Goals","","Most community college students from low-income families hold ambitious degree goals, yet only a small share achieves them. For decades, sociological explanations emphasized a cooling out process where institutional actors reduce students’ ambitions through academic reorientation. This study tests an alternative: whether student financial aid—largely outside community college control—shapes educational goals. In Wisconsin experimental data, a private need-based grant repackaging lowered 2-year students’ degree aspirations and expectations on average.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/rethinking-the-cooling-out-hypothesis-for-the-21st-century-the-impact-of-financial-aid-on-students-educational-goals/599045/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/rethinking-the-cooling-out-hypothesis-for-the-21st-century-the-impact-of-financial-aid-on-students-educational-goals/599045.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"kopisore","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-01","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":34},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What problem does the article address about community college students’ degree goals?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It examines why many low-income community college students, despite ambitious goals, do not attain them at high rates.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What alternative hypothesis does the article propose to the cooling out explanation?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It investigates whether student financial aid influences educational goals, even though community college actors mainly do not control it.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What did the experimental study find about financial aid and students’ educational aspirations?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"A private grant program that repackaged need-based aid decreased educational degree aspirations and expectations of 2-year college students on average.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},599045,1792171099,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":34,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},962090880963,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","Rethinking the Cooling Out Hypothesis for the 21st Century: The Impact of Financial Aid on Students’Educational Goals  \nCommunity College Review 2019, Vol. 47(1) 79–104 © The Author(s) 2018  \nArticle reuse guidelines:  \n[sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/0091552118820449](DOI: 10.1177/0091552118820449)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/0091552118820449)[journals.sagepub.com/home/crw](journals.sagepub.com/home/crw)  \nKatharine M. Broton 1  \nAbstract  \nBackground: Most community college students from low-income families have ambitious educational degree goals, but only a small fraction attains them. For many decades, sociologists have primarily attributed this problem to a cooling out process in which college practitioners diminish students’ educational ambitions using academic reorientation processes that encourage the least-promising students to lower their degree goals. The cooling out explanation focuses exclusively on the actions of institutional community college actors rather than other factors affecting student decisions and thus has been used to vilify community colleges as engines of inequality. Objective: This article addresses an alternative hypothesis, considering whether student financial aid, the ubiquitous and multifaceted system that community college actors mainly do not control, influences students’ educational goals.  \nMethod and Results: Using data from an experimental study of need-based financial aid in Wisconsin, I find that a private grant program, which triggered a repackaging of students’ financial aid awards, decreased the educational degree aspirations and expectations of 2-year college students, on average.  \nContributions and Implications: Although counterintuitive, this finding is consistent with the idea that the complex manner in which aid is delivered creates confusion and uncertainty about the actual costs of college. While these lowered degree goals persisted over time, they did not affect degree attainment rates, suggesting students’expectations may be more malleable and less consequential than prior research  \n1 University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA  \nCorresponding Author:  \nKatharine M. Broton, Assistant Professor, Departments of Educational Policy and Leadership Studies and Sociology, by courtesy, University of Iowa, N499 Lindquist Center, 240 S. Madison Street, Iowa City, IA 52240, USA.  \nEmail: [katharine-broton@uiowa.edu](katharine-broton@uiowa.edu)  \nsuggests. This article demonstrates that the observed cooling out phenomenon isnot necessarily the result of a meritocratic sorting system and involves processes previously neglected by sociological theory. A more robust model of college choices is needed.  \nKeywords  \ncommunity college, educational goals, need-based financial aid, experimental research  \nOver the past 40 years, college enrollment has grown substantially, but the percentage of entrants who complete college has been stagnant (Bailey & Dynarski, 2011) . Educational expansion has been fueled by greater inclusion of historically disadvantaged groups and largely accommodated by the community college sector (Dougherty, 1987; National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2015; Rosenbaum, DeilAmen, & Person, 2006). Today, nearly half of all undergraduates attend a community college (NCES, 2015), including approximately half of all Pell Grant recipients (Mullins, 2011) . But the opportunities created by community colleges are accompanied by significant challenges for their students, as evidenced by their high rates of noncompletion (Bound, Lovenheim, & Turner, 2010; Brand, Pfeffer, & Goldrick-Rab, 2014) . By one estimate, just 29% of community college students earned a certificate or associate degree within 3 years (NCES, 2014) . Among degree-seeking students starting at a community college, just 14% went on to complete a bachelor’s degree within 6 years (Jenkins & Fink, 2016) .  \nTo improve the sociological underst","cbCaiajc7glungSn","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiajc7glungSn","pdf",431206,26,"English","# Abstract\n## Background and Literature Review\n## Inequality in Higher Education","[{\"question\":\"What problem does the article address about community college students’ degree goals?\",\"answer\":\"It examines why many low-income community college students, despite ambitious goals, do not attain them at high rates.\"},{\"question\":\"What alternative hypothesis does the article propose to the cooling out explanation?\",\"answer\":\"It investigates whether student financial aid influences educational goals, even though community college actors mainly do not control it.\"},{\"question\":\"What did the experimental study find about financial aid and students’ educational aspirations?\",\"answer\":\"A private grant program that repackaged need-based aid decreased educational degree aspirations and expectations of 2-year college students on average.\"}]","Rethinking the Cooling Out Hypothesis for the 21st Century - The Impact of Financial Aid on Students’ Educational Goals | PDF",1792088066,66]