College affordability

EPI Working papers

Simplifying Tax Incentives and Aid for College: Progress and Prospects

January 1, 2013

Susan Dynarski, Mark Wiederspan, Judith Scott-Clayton

The application for federal student aid is longer than the tax returns filled out by the majority of US households. Research suggests that complexity in the aid process undermines its effectiveness in inducing more students into college. In 2008, an...

EPI Working papers

Student Aid Simplification: Looking Back and Looking Ahead

February 1, 2012

Susan Dynarski, Mark Wiederspan

Each year, fourteen million households seeking federal aid for college complete a detailed questionnaire about their finances, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). At 116 questions, the FAFSA is almost as long as IRS Form 1040 and...

EPI Working papers

The Consumption Value of Postsecondary Education

November 1, 2011

Kevin Stange, Brian Jacob, Brian McCall

Education provides both investment and consumption benefits; the former being realized after schooling is completed but the latter accruing only while schooling is actually taking place. In this paper, we quantify the importance of consumption value...

Transitions into the labor market

An Empirical Analysis of the Consequences of Major Choice Using Texas Administrative Data

June 2018

Kevin Stange, Rodney Andrews, Scott Imberman, Michael Lovenheim

The central aim of this project is to estimate the causal effect of students’ college major choices on their postsecondary and labor market outcomes. The combination of a research design that can identify causal effects of major choice with rich administrative data that allow us to track students from high school through college and into the labor market is novel in the higher education literature and will provide new and important evidence on how college major choices affect students during college and...

Two students collaborating on a computer assignment

Postsecondary preparation & success

Understanding Geographic Differences in Postsecondary Decision Making and Financial Aid Interventions

January 2021

Susan Dynarski, Elizabeth Burland, Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija, Stefanie DeLuca, Katherine Michelmore

This study gathers and analyzes data from qualitative interviews with high school students in Michigan. These interviews ask students to describe their college decision making process and to what extent financial aid programs or interventions were effective at influencing their postsecondary decisions. The information gathered through this project provides vital insight, directly from the student perspective, on how financial aid interventions work and who they work for. Moreover, this project sheds light on the link between postsecondary inequality and student decision-making. Finally, the...

A block M on the ground on University of Michigan's campus

Postsecondary preparation & success

HAIL Scholars: Increasing Economic Diversity at a Flagship University

January 2014

Susan Dynarski, Katherine Michelmore, Meghan Oster, Stephanie Owen, Elizabeth Burland, Shwetha Raghuraman

EPI researchers and University of Michigan administrators developed and piloted the HAIL scholarship research program to attract low-income, high-achieving students to consider applying to and enrolling in the university. The project addresses three issues known to affect college application behavior among low-income, high-achieving students: uncertainty about their suitability for an elite school, over-estimates by students and parents of the net cost of college, and procedural barriers such as aid applications. The intervention targets low-income, high-achieving students in Michigan, as...