Michigan education trust: Characteristics of first- and second-round enrollees in a state tuition prepayment plan

Pay Now, Learn Later Plan Proves Popular in Michigan, said the headline (N.Y.Times, August 12, 1988). The plan was the Michigan Education Trust (MET) advance tuition payment plan proposed by Governor James Blanchard in 1986. The Michigan Legislature approved MET at the end of 1986, and open enrollment for the first round took place in 1988. The second round of enrollment occurred in October, 1989. This research paper examines the characteristics of the first- and second-round enrollees, and it then compares the beneficiary (the legal term for the child who was enrolled) characteristics with those of the general population of the state and with the 1988 entering freshman classes of public universities in Michigan.Presented at the Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Louisville, KY, May 13–16, 1990.