An important feature of postsecondary schooling is the experimentation that accompanies sequential decision making. Specifically, by entering college, a student gains the option to decide at a future time whether it is optimal to remain in college or to drop out, after resolving uncertainty that existed at entrance about factors that affect the return to college. This paper uses data from the Berea Panel Study to quantify the value of this option. The unique nature of the data allows us to make a distinction between “actual” option values and “perceived” option values and to examine the accuracy of students' perceptions.

中文翻译：

---

大学入学的感知和实际选择值

专上教育的一个重要特征是伴随顺序决策的实验。具体来说，通过解决进入大学时存在的影响因素，这些因素影响了学生返回大学的机会，在进入大学后，学生可以选择在将来的某个时间决定是留在大学还是退学。本文使用来自Berea小组研究的数据来量化此选项的价值。数据的独特性质使我们能够区分“实际”选项值和“感知”选项值，并检验学生感知的准确性。