When Joseph Ogunlade began digging into the connection between housing prices and college enrollment in Wisconsin, he was chasing more than data—he was chasing a deeper understanding of the American dream.
“Education and homeownership have long symbolized upward mobility,” says Joseph, an MBA student in the College. “But what we’re seeing now is that rising housing costs may actually be discouraging people from pursuing postsecondary education. That’s a major shift.”
With mentorship from Assistant Professor of Marketing Pallav Routh and support from the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute (NMDSI), Joseph set out to explore how housing affordability is impacting college enrollment trends across Wisconsin counties. His findings are eye-opening.
“High school graduation rates are improving, but enrollment in universities and technical colleges is declining, especially in smaller cities,” Joseph says. “Our data also show that male students are more affected by rising housing costs than female students, and unemployment plays a role in compounding the effect.”
Dr. Routh emphasizes the importance of this work. “At first glance, housing prices and education might seem unrelated,” he says. “But data science helps us connect the dots. These insights can point to real challenges for policymakers and communities.”
Funded by NMDSI’s Student Research Scholars Program, the project gave Joseph the time and resources to run complex models, clean data from multiple sources and explore nuanced relationships within the data.
“Without that funding and support, I wouldn’t have been able to dive so deeply,” Joseph notes. “This experience made me more inquisitive and passionate about housing affordability and its broader economic impacts.”
Dr. Routh agrees. “The NMDSI doesn’t just support research—it values the effort and curiosity behind it,” he says. “And that’s what leads to impactful, student-driven discoveries like Joseph’s that have tremendous potential.”
Joseph hopes his research will inspire policies that better support families balancing housing and education costs. “I want this to help schools, nonprofits, and local leaders support students who are quietly struggling,” he says.
As the project continues to grow, both Joseph and Dr. Routh see opportunities to expand the research through interdisciplinary collaboration and larger data sets. “This isn’t just about numbers,” Joseph says. “It’s about real people, real families and the systems that either support or limit their futures.”