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Randomized Evaluation of Post-Secondary Financial Aid and Support Services

Last registered on November 23, 2013
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Randomized Evaluation of Post-Secondary Financial Aid and Support Services
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000125
First published
November 23, 2013, 4:35 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Josh Angrist
Affiliation
MIT, NBER
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Amanda Pallais
PI Affiliation
Harvard, NBER
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PI Name
David Autor
PI Affiliation
MIT, NBER
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2012-01-01
End date
2022-06-30
Keywords
Education, Finance & Microfinance, Labor
Additional Keywords
scholarships, financial aid
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Our goal is to analyze the effects of one of the largest, non-federal scholarship programs on measures of educational attainment. Outcomes of interest include continuation and completion rates, completion times, academic performance, and degrees obtained. Broadly, we are interested in the following two questions: 1) How does financial support affect the educational attainment of recipients? 2) How do support services affect the educational attainment of scholarship recipients?

After the initial assessment of educational attainment outcomes, we are interested in following up on labor market outcomes, such as wages and credit.

To address these questions, we will randomize scholarships and support services across applicants to the program.
External Link(s)
School Effectiveness and Inequality Initiative homepage

Registration Citation

Citation
Angrist, Josh, David Autor and Amanda Pallais. 2013. "Randomized Evaluation of Post-Secondary Financial Aid and Support Services." AEA RCT Registry. November 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.125-1.0
Former Citation
Angrist, Josh, David Autor and Amanda Pallais. 2013. "Randomized Evaluation of Post-Secondary Financial Aid and Support Services." AEA RCT Registry. November 23. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/125/history/624
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The interventions of interest are scholarships and support services. For the 2012 cohort, there is one treatment group that receives a traditional scholarship. This scholarship covers the cost of tuition and fees at public, in-state colleges and universities. At eligible campuses, students who receive the traditional scholarships receive comprehensive support services (e.g., tutoring, special courses, counseling) at participating campuses.

At these participating campuses, there are scholarship-only treatment groups for 2013 and 2014 cohorts, in addition to the traditional scholarships at all campuses.
Intervention Start Date
2012-03-15
Intervention End Date
2014-03-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Enrollment, Credit hours, GPA
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
First, we disqualify students who are ineligible for the scholarship based on their Estimated Financial Contribution (EFC) from the FAFSA Student Aid Report (SAR) and Grade Point Average (GPA). Next, the scholarship provider reviews applications to award scholarships to those students who clearly deserve the scholarship. Simultaneously, reviewers decline applications that do not reflect the values of the scholarship organization.

Following the review process, there is a sizable group of applicants on the margin. While there are not enough scholarships to go to each student, reviewers agree that students in this group equally deserve the support. These applicants are stratified by the first-choice school listed on their application. We then randomize the scholarship applicants within each stratum into treatment and control groups:

1) Non-recipients (control)
2) Traditional Scholarship recipients, eligible for support services at providing schools
3) Scholarship-Only recipients, ineligible for support services related to their scholarships*

*The third group applies only to the 2013 and 2014 cohorts.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization by computer, using stratification by school preference
Randomization Unit
Applicants
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
4150 applicants
Sample size: planned number of observations
4150 applicants
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1500 traditional scholarship awards (eligible for support services); 450 scholarship-only awards; 2200 control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Percentage: 80 percent power used for all calculations. 1 Year Enrollment: .022 (2.2 percentage point) difference, SD: .15; Credit hours in year 1: 1.2 credit hours, SD: 7.02; GPA in year 1: .15 GPA points, SD: .91
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
National Bureau of Economic Research Human Subjects Committee
IRB Approval Date
2012-10-01
IRB Approval Number
00003692
IRB Name
MIT Committe On the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects (COUHES)
IRB Approval Date
2012-01-19
IRB Approval Number
1112004837
Analysis Plan