Why Do College-Going Interventions Work?

Carrell, Scott E.; Sacerdote, Bruce

doi:10.1257/app.20150530

Cited by 87 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…In contrast to several prior experimental studies that have targeted interventions on selected students, we demonstrate that a school‐wide program can have positive enrollment effects at the margin of attendance. The effects we observe are substantially smaller than those reported by Carrell and Sacerdote (), but that is likely explained by the difference in targeting and dosage in their intervention. At their largest high schools, roughly 30 students were treated by a team of advisers for multiple hours each week for several weeks.…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 94%

“…Perhaps the most optimistic study has been the recent evaluation of the Dartmouth Mentoring Program (Carrell & Sacerdote, 2016). In this program, Dartmouth undergraduates helped students apply for college and provided $100 in incentive money to students who completed college applications.…”

Section: College Advising For High School Studentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Establishing valid counterfactuals for students participating in college access programs is challenging due to the selection bias of schools and students choosing to work with the program, a challenge we overcome using an experimental design. In recent years, there have been a number of studies implementing randomized control trials to evaluate college access programs (Avery, 2013;Berman, Bos, & Ortiz, 2008;Carrell & Sacerdote, 2016;Oreopoulos, Brown, & Lavecchia, 2017;Phillips & Reber, 2018); however, they all examine within-school effects of programs targeting specific students within a population. While these studies are greatly informative about the efficacy of studenttargeted interventions, the diversity of college access programs necessitates further consideration of the efficacy of programs targeting an entire school.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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College Guidance for All: A Randomized Experiment in Pre‐College Advising

Bettinger¹,

Evans²

2019

J Policy Anal Manage

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Pre‐college advising programs exist in most disadvantaged high schools throughout the United States. These programs supplement traditional advising by high school guidance counselors and attempt to help underrepresented and disadvantaged students overcome the complexities of the postsecondary admission and financial aid processes. Existing evidence on these programs often uses within‐school randomization where spillovers and alternative supports may confound estimates. We provide the first evidence on a whole school intervention resulting from a school‐level randomized controlled trial in the United States. The college access program we study uses a near‐peer model where a recent college graduate works at the school assisting students in the application and enrollment process. Pooled results across the first three years of program implementation find no significant impacts on overall college enrollment. However, subgroup analyses reveal positive, significant effects among the groups most targeted by the intervention: Hispanic and low‐income students. Most of the impact comes through increasing two‐year college enrollment, but this appears to be new entrants rather than inducing students to move from four‐year to two‐year colleges. The observed positive effects for these subgroups attenuate over time. We attribute this drop in the estimated impact to departures in fidelity of the experiment. Even among the cohorts for which we find positive enrollment impacts, we find no significant impacts on college persistence.

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 94%

Section: College Advising For High School Studentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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College Guidance for All: A Randomized Experiment in Pre‐College Advising

Bettinger¹,

Evans²

2019

J Policy Anal Manage

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“…Application rates and college enrollment increased by 15 and 8 percentage points, respectively. Another study by Carrell and Sacerdote (2017) involved counselors identifying particular Grade 12 students who might benefit from receiving individual support from undergraduate students to help and encourage them through all application steps, including application fee waivers. Program applications increased 29 percentage points and college enrollment 6 percentage points.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Keeping College Options Open: A Field Experiment to Help All High School Seniors Through the College Application Process

Oreopoulos,

Welch,

Ali

2017

AEA Randomized Controlled Trials

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Recent research suggests that the college application process itself prevents access. This paper reports results from a school-based experiment in which application assistance is incorporated into the high school curriculum for all graduating seniors at low-transition schools. Over three workshops, students were guided to pick programs of interest that they were eligible for, apply for real, and complete the financial aid application. The goal was to create a real college option for exiting students to make the transition easier and more salient. Among all graduating seniors, the program increased application rates by 15 percentage points, and college going rates by 5 percentage points. Among those not taking advanced-level courses, college enrollment increased by 9 percentage points. The program generated significant effects for a wide range of heterogeneous groups, including both males and females, those from urban and rural schools, and those with above and below average grades. While more intensive than other tested approaches, in-class application assistance may provide a more effective approach for bridging the gap towards higher education. C 2019 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

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“…Multiple recent papers using nudge-style informational interventions at state or national scale fail to meaning-5 fully impact college enrollment choices (Gurantz et al, 2019;Bird et al, 2019;Hyman, 2019). Researchers testing multiple treatments often find that information only interventions have little impact on students (Bettinger et al, 2012;Carrell and Sacerdote, 2017). Information on college-level earnings, released through the US federal government's College Scorecard website, does not affect the college application patterns of students from non-wealthy families or high schools (Hurwitz and Smith, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

O Brother, Where Start Thou? Sibling Spillovers in College Enrollment

Goodman¹,

Hurwitz²,

Mulhern³

et al. 2019

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We study within-family spillovers in college enrollment to show college-going behavior is transmissible between peers. Because siblings' test scores are weakly correlated, we exploit college-specific admissions thresholds that directly affect older but not younger siblings' college options. Older siblings' admissibility substantially increases their own four-year college enrollment rate and quality of college attended. Their improved college choices in turn raise younger siblings' college enrollment rate and quality of college chosen, particularly for families with low predicted probabilities of college enrollment. Some younger siblings follow their older sibling to the same campus but many upgrade by choosing other colleges. The observed spillovers are not well-explained by price, income, proximity or legacy effects, but are most consistent with older siblings transmitting otherwise unavailable information about the college experience and its potential returns. The importance of such personally salient information may partly explain persistent differences in college-going rates by income, geography and other characteristics that define a community. AbstractWe study within-family spillovers in college enrollment to show college-going behavior is transmissible between peers. Because siblings' test scores are weakly correlated, we exploit college-specific admissions thresholds that directly affect older but not younger siblings' college options. Older siblings' admissibility substantially increases their own four-year college enrollment rate and quality of college attended. Their improved college choices in turn raise younger siblings' college enrollment rate and quality of college chosen, particularly for families with low predicted probabilities of college enrollment. Some younger siblings follow their older sibling to the same campus but many upgrade by choosing other colleges. The observed spillovers are not well-explained by price, income, proximity or legacy effects, but are most consistent with older siblings transmitting otherwise unavailable information about the college experience and its potential returns. The importance of such personally salient information may partly explain persistent differences in college-going rates by income, geography and other characteristics that define a community.

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Why Do College-Going Interventions Work?

Cited by 87 publications

References 20 publications

College Guidance for All: A Randomized Experiment in Pre‐College Advising

College Guidance for All: A Randomized Experiment in Pre‐College Advising

Keeping College Options Open: A Field Experiment to Help All High School Seniors Through the College Application Process

O Brother, Where Start Thou? Sibling Spillovers in College Enrollment

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