Information barriers disadvantage low-income students in the college transition: bright low-income students miss selective colleges, and mailed information packages raise application and enrollment¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2014 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Bright students from disadvantaged backgrounds often fail to apply to selective colleges that have lower out-of-pocket costs than the less selective schools they know about, despite freely available online information. → Adam M. Lavecchia 2014 q2 i? Sending information about school availability directly to students as an information package appears to significantly increase application and enrollment rates at selective schools. → Adam M. Lavecchia 2014 (2)

Evidence¶

Adam M. Lavecchia 2014¶

Adam M. Lavecchia, Heidi Liu, and Philip Oreopoulos. (2014). Behavioral Economics of Education: Progress and Possibilities. NBER Working Paper No. 20609. http://www.nber.org/papers/w20609

q2 · i? · review · r2

The review reports, citing Hoxby and Avery (2013), that disadvantaged high-achieving students fail to apply to selective colleges with lower out-of-pocket costs than schools they know about; no effect size is printed.

"Hoxby and Avery (2013) find that bright students from disadvantaged backgrounds often fail to apply to selective colleges that have lower out-of-pocket costs than less selective schools they know about."

Adam M. Lavecchia 2014 (2)¶

Adam M. Lavecchia, Heidi Liu, and Philip Oreopoulos. (2014). Behavioral Economics of Education: Progress and Possibilities. NBER Working Paper No. 20609. http://www.nber.org/papers/w20609

q2 · i? · review · r2

The review reports, citing Hoxby and Avery (2013) and Hoxby and Turner (2013), that directly mailed information packages significantly increased application and enrollment at selective schools; no effect size is printed.

"Sending information about school availability directly to students in the form of an information package appears to significantly increase application and enrollment rates at selective schools, a point we expand upon in Section 3."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Undermatch occurs when students attend a college less selective than their high school academic achievement would allow
• Students with strong qualifications took themselves out of four-year college planning, choosing early two-year enrollment as a low-risk solution when searches felt overwhelming and costly — related
• Bottom Line increases enrollment in a four-year college among low-income high school students — related
• Low-income urban students complete college-application steps at far lower rates than suburban peers with similar aspirations — related
• FLIGHT may increase college enrollment among disadvantaged students, with 97% of the FLIGHT group versus 83% of the comparison group enrolling in college — related
• Students often do not know which questions to ask about college until it is too late, and want colleges to anticipate their information needs — related