The public has invested billions of dollars in need-based financial aid over many decades, yet the influence of family income on rates of college persistence and completion has grown stronger. This has led to a robust debate among researchers about whether financial capital plays an important role in students deciding not only to attend college, but whether to continue enrolling and earning credits each year, en route to a degree.
Financial aid recipients are less likely than other students to earn degrees, which some interpret to mean that the investment in aid is not paying off, and the quasi-experimental evidence suggests that any positive impacts of aid on student success are likely quite modest.
Experiments are necessary to fully eliminate the bias in observational studies due to non-random assignment of financial aid to students. Yet experiments are uncommon for aid programs that are large, simple, and based solely on need. It is possible, therefore, that researchers are understating the impacts of need-based grant programs that are used by millions of students but extremely expensive to provide.
This project will consider how grant dollars affect the college experience of students from low-income families, altering their work behaviors and academic efforts, as well as their choices about how to continue paying for college. In addition, our analyses will account for the complex context in which financial aid is delivered—specifically the intersection of federal rules governing the packaging of need-based financial aid. With extensive data obtained from administrative records, and repeated surveys of students, our analyses will shed new light on how, why, and under what conditions need-based financial aid promotes college attainment.
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