IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedgfe/96646.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Affording Degree Completion: An Experimental Study of Completion Grants at Accessible Public Universities

Author

Abstract

To improve college affordability and graduation rates, universities are increasingly allocating “completion grants” to students who are nearing the finish line but facing financial challenges. Using an experimental design and common program model across 11 broad-access public universities in ten states, we assessed the impact of a completion grants averaging $1,200 distributed among more than 14,000 students. We find that, despite university expectations that most students were near completion, only two-thirds of students eligible to receive a completion grant graduated within the academic year. Receiving a completion grant did not improve that rate. However, nearly all eligible students (95%) graduated within three years or were still working on their degrees. While completion grants are intended to enhance equity, we do not find evidence that they exerted positive impacts for marginalized groups as designed in this study. Moreover, while there was some program implementation variation across universities, it did not lead to differences in program impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Christine Baker-Smith & Kallie Clark & Sara Goldrick-Rab & Christel Perkins & Douglas A. Webber & Travis T. York, 2023. "Affording Degree Completion: An Experimental Study of Completion Grants at Accessible Public Universities," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2023-047, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:96646
    DOI: 10.17016/FEDS.2023.047
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/feds/files/2023047pap.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17016/FEDS.2023.047?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benjamin L. Castleman & Bridget Terry Long, 2016. "Looking beyond Enrollment: The Causal Effect of Need-Based Grants on College Access, Persistence, and Graduation," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(4), pages 1023-1073.
    2. Benjamin L. Castleman & Bridget Terry Long & Zachary Mabel, 2018. "Can Financial Aid Help to Address the Growing Need for STEM Education? The Effects of Need†Based Grants on the Completion of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Courses and Degrees," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(1), pages 136-166, January.
    3. Oded Gurantz, 2015. "Who Loses Out? Registration Order, Course Availability, and Student Behaviors in Community College," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 86(4), pages 524-563, July.
    4. Eric Bettinger & Oded Gurantz & Laura Kawano & Bruce Sacerdote & Michael Stevens, 2019. "The Long-Run Impacts of Financial Aid: Evidence from California's Cal Grant," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 64-94, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jeffrey T. Denning & Eric R. Eide & Kevin J. Mumford & Richard W. Patterson & Merrill Warnick, 2022. "Why Have College Completion Rates Increased?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 1-29, July.
    2. Ferreyra,Maria Marta & Garriga,Carlos & Martin,Juan David & Sanchez Diaz,Angelica Maria, 2020. "Raising College Access and Completion : How Much Can Free College Help ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9428, The World Bank.
    3. George Bulman & Robert Fairlie & Sarena Goodman & Adam Isen, 2021. "Parental Resources and College Attendance: Evidence from Lottery Wins," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(4), pages 1201-1240, April.
    4. Matsuda, Kazushige, 2020. "Optimal timing of college subsidies: Enrollment, graduation, and the skill premium," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    5. Christopher Erwin & Melissa Binder & Cynthia Miller & Kate Krause, 2020. "Performance-based aid, enhanced advising, and the income gap in college graduation: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial," Working Papers 2020-06, Auckland University of Technology, Department of Economics.
    6. Wright, Nicholas A., 2021. "Need-based financing policies, college decision-making, and labor market behavior: Evidence from Jamaica," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    7. Anderson, Drew M., 2020. "When financial aid is scarce: The challenge of allocating college aid where it is needed most," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    8. Veronica Rattini, 2022. "The Effects of Financial Aid on Graduation and Labor Market Outcomes: New Evidence from Matched Education-Labor Data," CESifo Working Paper Series 10010, CESifo.
    9. Aguirre, Josefa, 2021. "Long-term effects of grants and loans for vocational education," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    10. Rodríguez Arenas, Jorge Leonardo, 2024. "¿Ampliando oportunidades o desigualdades? Efectos de un crédito-beca en estudiantes de bajo desempeño académico," Documentos CEDE 21189, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    11. Drew M. Anderson & Katharine M. Broton & Sara Goldrick‐Rab & Robert Kelchen, 2020. "Experimental Evidence on the Impacts of Need‐Based Financial Aid: Longitudinal Assessment of the Wisconsin Scholars Grant," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 720-739, June.
    12. Bietenbeck, Jan & Leibing, Andreas & Marcus, Jan & Weinhardt, Felix, 2023. "Tuition fees and educational attainment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    13. Henning Hermes & Philipp Lergetporer & Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold, 2021. "Application Barriers and the Socioeconomic Gap in Child Care Enrollment," CESifo Working Paper Series 9282, CESifo.
    14. Katharine M. Broton & Kari E. Weaver & Minhtuyen Mai, 2018. "Hunger in Higher Education: Experiences and Correlates of Food Insecurity among Wisconsin Undergraduates from Low-Income Families," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-25, September.
    15. Richard W. Patterson & Nolan G. Pope & Aaron Feudo, 2019. "Timing is Everything: Evidence from College Major Decisons," CESifo Working Paper Series 7448, CESifo.
    16. Mark Colas & Sebastian Findeisen & Dominik Sachs, 2021. "Optimal Need-Based Financial Aid," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(2), pages 492-533.
    17. Chandler, Vincent, 2018. "Short and long-term impacts of an increase in graduate funding," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 104-112.
    18. Molina, Teresa & Rivadeneyra, Ivan, 2021. "The schooling and labor market effects of eliminating university tuition in Ecuador," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    19. Lapid, Patrick Andrew, 2018. "Fall Forward or Spring Back? Evaluating Student Outcomes of a Fall-Semester Transition Program at a Public Flagship University," SocArXiv 8vwhd, Center for Open Science.
    20. Helmut Bester & Matthias Lang & Jianpei Li, 2021. "Signaling versus Auditing," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(4), pages 859-883, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    higher education; affordability; graduation; financial aid; inequality;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:96646. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ryan Wolfslayer ; Keisha Fournillier (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbgvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.