This study estimates the short- and long-term effects of undergraduate educational debt on students' decisions to apply and to enroll in graduate school after completing requirements for a baccalaureate degree, using marginal mean weighting through stratification method (MMW-S) to analyze data from the National Center for Education Statistics Baccalaureate and Beyond 2008–2012 (B&B 08-12) survey. Although we find that historically and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups tend to accumulate higher levels of educational debt, our results indicate minimal effects of undergraduate debt on graduation school application and enrollment. We find no differences by race/ethnicity, family income, or status as a first-generation baccalaureate recipient in the effects of educational debt on graduate school application or enrollment.

这项研究使用分层方法的边际平均权重（MMW-S）分析数据，估算完成学士学位要求后，本科生教育债务对学生决定申请和就读研究生的短期和长期影响国家教育统计中心Baccalaureate and Beyond 2008–2012（B＆B 08-12）的调查。尽管我们发现历史上和社会经济上处于不利地位的群体倾向于积累更高水平的教育债务，但我们的结果表明，本科生债务对毕业学校申请和入学的影响很小。我们发现种族，族裔，家庭收入或第一代学士学位接受者的身份在教育债务对研究生申请或入学的影响方面没有差异。