Information and College Access: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

"This paper considers the role of information (or lack of) for college access. Many researchers and policy makers take for granted that students have the same information from all available sources when making school choices,(though) students receive information in many different forms, from many different people. Students may not access the same information the same way. There is growing evidence that how information is provided, and how access to post secondary education (PSE) is promoted matters in important ways." (p.2)

The authors of "this paper explored how small differences in the way information about PSE is provided can influence high school students’ interests and expectations in attending. [The authors] asked students from disadvantaged high schools [in Toronto] to go on the Internet and take two short surveys, offering $20 for their participation. About half, randomly selected, were shown a multi-media page at the end of the second survey, with an easy to follow 3 minute video describing costs and benefits of PSE, and how to afford it. Students could also follow along the video with text provided beside it, and estimate their own financial aid eligibility with a financial aid calculator that only required approximating household income and family size" (p.24). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

"Despite large attrition rates of students invited to go online, and attrition rates between the first and second survey (that were not related to whether a student was shown the video), the results point clearly to the conclusion that information and the way it is provided matters. Three weeks after exposure to the video students that took the first survey and were exposed to the additional information about PSE were: - significantly more likely to say they aspired to complete at least a college degree - had higher expectations of their own returns to PSE, - were more likely to believe they were eligible for grants, and - less likely to believe the main reason students don’t go to on to PSE is because of costs. Moreover, these students were more likely to download an additional document that offered additional (and printable) information about PSE, and were more likely to request additional information about specific colleges and universities. These results were driven mostly by students who initially said in the first survey they were unsure about their education aspirations, or who intended to stop after high school, which is consistent with our expectation that those most likely to react to this information are those least interested in going in the first place" (p.24). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2012
• Author(s): Oreopoulos, Philip; Dunn, Ryan
• Organizational Author(s): National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Toronto, Dept. of Economics; et al.
• Funding Source: National Bureau of Economic Research
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Melissa Mack
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies