Pre-College Program Benefits North Carolina

Sherick Hughes, a former MSEN Pre-College student, has conducted a cost-benefit analysis of the MSEN Pre-College Program, comparing the program's costs to the state to its benefits in increased earnings.  This study shows that the benefits of the Pre-College Program to the state of North Carolina outweigh its costs.

Sherick Hughes, a former Pre-College student at Elizabeth City State University who is a recent graduate of the Master of Public Administration Program and currently a doctoral student at UNC-Chapel Hill, has conducted a study that determines the costs of sending the 234 African Americans in the 1998-1999 Pre-College graduating class through the program for four years.  He then estimated the number of these students who enrolled in college solely because of the MSEN Pre-College Program and determined the amount of the increased earnings of those students who were expected to stay and work in North Carolina. 

It was determined that, due to higher educational levels, these individuals would contribute more to the economy of North Carolina in increased earnings than the state had spent to put them through the program.  Hughes estimated that it would take six to seven years after high school graduation for the benefits of the Pre-College Program to outweigh its costs for this group of students and that the net benefits of the program were likely to increase as long as they stay and work in North Carolina.  In fact, if these students, who attended college solely because of MSEN and then stayed in North Carolina, lived and worked in the state until retirement at age 64, the economic benefit from their increased earnings would exceed $3.86 million and would surpass the entire cost of the program for the four years they were in it.

This study has been published in the February-March 2002 edition of The High School Journal.  The article is entitled "The MSEN Pre-College Program: What are the Costs and Benefits Based on Estimates of its Impact on Black High School Graduates?”  

If you would like to receive more information about this study, please contact the network office at (919) 966-3256.

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