Grant aid increases postsecondary persistence, raising within-year persistence by 3.2 and year-to-year persistence by 1.8 percentage points in U.S. causal studies¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · quant-synthesis r3 · q4
Currency · newest study 2018 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q4 i? Grant aid increases within-year persistence by 3.2 percentage points (statistically significant at the 5% level). → Nguyen 2018 q4 i? Grant aid increases year-to-year persistence by 1.8 percentage points, highly statistically significant. → Nguyen 2018 (2)

Evidence¶

Nguyen 2018¶

Nguyen, T.D., Kramer, J.W., & Evans, B.J. (2018). The Effects of Grant Aid on Student Persistence and Degree Attainment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Causal Evidence (CEPA Working Paper No. 18-04). Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis. http://cepa.stanford.edu/wp18-04

q4 · i? · quant-synthesis · r3

Random-effects meta-analysis of nine U.S. studies providing within-year persistence estimates; the pooled estimate indicates grant aid "increases within year persistence by 3.2 percentage points," significant at the 5% level despite a sizable standard error. No standardized effect size is printed.

"In terms of within year persistence, the summary estimate from nine studies indicates that grant aid increases within year persistence by 3.2 percentage points."

Nguyen 2018 (2)¶

q4 · i? · quant-synthesis · r3

Random-effects meta-analysis of 25 U.S. year-to-year persistence estimates from causal studies; the pooled effect is "a modest 1.8 percentage points" with standard error .005 and a 95% CI of about one to three percentage points. No standardized effect size is printed.

"Next we find grant aid increases year-to-year persistence by a modest 1.8 percentage points with a fairly precise standard error of .005, which is highly statistically significant; the 95% confidence interval ranges from about one to three percentage points."

Discussion¶

Grant aid programs bundling additional academic or social supports show larger persistence and completion effects than aid alone — related
Effects of grant aid on persistence and completion are heterogeneous across studies, justifying random-effects meta-analysis — related
Grant aid increases degree completion, raising on-time completion by 2.4 and delayed completion by 2.5 percentage points in U.S. causal studies — related
Need-based grant aid improves persistence and completion while merit-only aid shows no detectable effect on these outcomes — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
An additional $1,000 of grant aid improves year-to-year persistence by a statistically significant 1.2 percentage points, with smaller statistically insignificant effects on degree completion — a narrower finding that bears on this claim

Page metadata

Field	Value
`type`	`claim`
`id`	`grant-aid-increases-postsecondary-persistence`
`title`	`Grant aid increases postsecondary persistence, raising within-year persistence by 3.2 and year-to-year persistence by 1.8 percentage points in U.S. causal studies`
`description`	`Grant aid increases postsecondary persistence, raising within-year persistence by 3.2 and year-to-year persistence by 1.8 percentage points in U.S.`
`status`	`review`
`evidence_strength`	`strong`
`newest_evidence`	`2018`
`generated`	by `process:wiki-ingest` on `2026-10-20`
`trust`	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
`sources`	2 — `nguyen-2018`, `nguyen-2018-2`

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