Ryan Wells is an assistant professor of higher education. Having earned his PhD in higher education from the University of Iowa in 2008, his research concerns aspects of the transition to postsecondary education. Topics for recent research on college access and equity include gender, immigrant status, financial aid, and state and federal policy. New research specifically examines the transition to college for working adults. Ryan primarily uses quantitative research methods including advanced methods such as hierarchical linear modeling. His research has been published in journals such as The Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, Teachers College Record, Journal of College Student Retention, Community College Review, and Globalization Societies & Education. He has received awards for his research from the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) and the Association for Institutional Research (AIR). Ryan teaches the following graduate courses: Access & Equity in Higher Education, Higher Education Finance Policy, Doctoral Seminar in Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, and History of Higher Education.
Journal Articles
Delayed entry: The influences of family income, parental education, and parental occupation on the college transition, Journal of Higher Education (2012)
This study investigates delayed college entry, including how college enrollment differs based on students’ plans...
Gender and realized educational expectations: The roles of social origins and significant others, Research in Higher Education (2012)
Methodological options and their implications: An example using secondary data to analyze Latino educational expectations (with Cassie Lynch and Tricia Seifert), Research in Higher Education (2011)
A number of studies over decades have examined determinants of educational expectations. However, even among...
Why do more women than men want to earn a four-year degree? Exploring the effects of gender, social origin, and social capital on educational expectations (with Seifert Tricia, Park SuEuk, Padgett Ryan, and Umbach Paul), Journal of Higher Education (2011)
Students' educational expectations are one of the strongest predictors of their future educational attainment (Mortimer,...
Children of immigrants and educational expectations: The roles of school composition, Teachers College Record (2010)
Background/Context: Many children of immigrants are not enrolled in high schools that sufficiently meet their...