Assessing College Affordability

Making college more affordable continues to be an important policy tool for mitigating poverty because research finds that real earnings for college-educated workers have held steady over the last 50 years while real earnings for high school graduates have decreased (Deming & Dynarski, 2009). In an effort to reduce the cost of college and, in turn, reduce disparities in higher education attainment, policy makers have made substantial investments in need-based financial aid through national programs such as the Pell Grant (Park & Scott-Clayton, 2018) and state-based based programs such as California’s Cal Grant (Bettinger et al., 2019). Researchers examining the impact of financial aid have found that aid eligibility increases college attendance (Nguyen et al., 2018), credit accumulation rates (Castleman & Long, 2016), undergraduate (Goldrick-Rab et al., 2016) and graduate degree completion (Bettinger et al., 2019), and long-term financial wellbeing such as homeownership and credit scores (Scott-Clayton & Zafar, 2019).

Despite the positive evidence in favor of financial aid policies in general, there is a dearth of evidence on the impact of North Carolina’s student aid programs. There is also limited evidence from any state that helps explain the mechanism by which aid eligibility affects student outcomes (i.e., increasing academic effort versus relaxing financial constraints). This study addresses these needs by evaluating the impact of two need-based student aid programs in North Carolina. Specifically, we examine the NC Education Lottery Scholarship (ELS) and need-based grant (NBG).

Aims/Goals

This study examines the impact of the NC Education Lottery Scholarship and need-based grant aid on student outcomes. Our research evaluates the extent to which the ELS and NBG programs affect student retention, credits earned, and academic performance in students’ first year of college and the impact of the ELS and NBG programs on college progression and graduation.

Potential Outcomes/Impact

By comparing differences in students’ outcomes based on their eligibility for aid, this study will shed light on the extent to which state aid programs support student success while attending college. Overall, by examining the impact of the NC’s student aid programs, this study adds an important state context to the existing literature on student aid. In addition, leveraging the rich data available from North Carolina allows us to contribute to a broader understanding of the mechanisms though which financial aid affects student outcomes.

People

• Matthew Springer
• Andrew Kelley
• Lam Pham

Publications

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