Graduate Affiliate

Nicolás Acevedo is a Ph.D. student in Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. His research interests lie at the intersection of higher education and labor economics, focusing on the effects of financial aid, university governance, market determinants of the costs of higher education, and the labor market effects of occupational certifications.
Nicolás has also worked as a research assistant at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College. Prior to this, he worked in the Center for Studies in Economic Development (CEDE) and at the School of Government at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, focusing on the effects of teacher quality and accountability, the impacts of vocational education on labor market outcomes, the determinants of persistence in higher education, and the effect of human capital in public sector effectiveness.
Nicolás holds a BA and an MA in economics and an MPP from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia). He enjoys biking down the Hudson River Greenway in his spare time and random trivia.

Peilin Qiu is a Ph.D. Student in Education Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests are scalable decision making for community college students, behavioral intervention and nudges for student success, and strategic budget allocation adjustments in higher education institutions.

Prior to starting his Ph.D. program at UNC, he worked as a research assistant at the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. Before that, Peilin worked as a data analyst at the Institutional Research department at a community college in Michigan.

Peilin received a masters’ degree in Higher Education with a concentration in public policy at the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in economics from China. Peilin likes watching documentaries and independent films when he is free.