Greater educational attainment is associated with an increase in expected income, lowering of internal discount rates, and improved financial and health literacy. Income transfers have the potential to positively impact educational attainment by either reducing the direct cost of college attendance or by an inducing an income effect that nudges…

Meeting today's prospective college students where they are is key to staying ahead of current enrollment challenges. Understanding which messages resonate with which students and at certain parts of the enrollment funnel helps to ensure institutions are getting the right message, to the right student, at the right time in their journey. By…

The "Student FAFSA Completion Report" (2024) is submitted pursuant to Education Article § 7-212, Annotated Code of Maryland, which requires the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS) Center to annually produce an annual report, on or before December 15th of each year, beginning in 2023 and ending in 2028, on the submission and…

International student enrollment has become increasingly important in higher education financing as public appropriations for higher education and enrollments have declined. A critical consideration for U.S. public institutions -- in particular regional institutions that lack brand prestige -- is pricing. This research brief examines the methods…

Across the United States, colleges and universities must dynamically respond to changes in population demographics and demand in order to meet enrollment goals. As institutions have adapted to a shifting educational landscape, tuition discounting has become a prevalent mechanism utilized within strategic enrollment management. While many students…

The "Student FAFSA Completion Report" (2023) is submitted pursuant to Education Article § 7-212, Annotated Code of Maryland, which requires the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS) Center to annually produce, on or before December 15th of each year, beginning in 2023 and ending in 2028, on the submission and completion of the Free…

This is the technical documentation for the report, "How the College Cost Reduction Act Could Threaten the Teacher Pipeline." The College Cost Reduction Act would overhaul the Higher Education Act, making changes to student borrowing and repayment, borrower protections, college oversight, postsecondary data, and more. The bill includes a…

The Chancellor of the Oklahoma state system of higher education has focused on two overarching objectives: expanding workforce development efforts and creating paths to a better life for Oklahomans. Oklahoma public institutions and elected officials are partners in developing an educated, engaged workforce prepared to meet the state's current and…

This annual report contains the following sections: (1) Role of the State Regents; (2) Higher Education Update; (3) State System Fast Facts; (4) Affordability; (5) Key Initiatives; (6) Enrollment; (7) Outcomes; (8) Workforce Development; and (9) Institutional Highlights. The strength of Oklahoma's public higher education system shows in enrollment…

This paper studies the causal impacts of public universities on the outcomes of their marginally admitted students. I use administrative admission records spanning all 35 public universities in Texas, which collectively enroll 10 percent of American public university students, to systematically identify and employ decentralized cutoffs in SAT/ACT…

To improve college access for low-income students, an increasing number of public colleges and universities have implemented no-loan policies, where student loans are replaced with institutional grant aid that does not require repayment. Using detailed income measures provided by Mobility Report Card data, this study examines the effect of no-loan…

Despite decades of research and policy efforts, socioeconomic disparities in educational outcomes persist in the United States. In this dissertation, I examine these disparities, focusing on access to higher education during the later years and on academic achievement during elementary school. I explore the importance of family, neighborhood, and…

Generally, need-based financial aid improves students' academic outcomes (Nguyen, Kramer & Evans, 2019). However, the largest source of need-based grant aid in the United States, the Federal Pell Grant Program (Pell), has a mixed evaluation record (Bettinger, 2004; Rubin, 2011; Marx & Turner, 2018; Park & Scott-Clayton, 2018;…

This study uses a series of panel models to explore the effect of North Carolina (NC) College Application Week (CAW) and free college applications during that week on the number of applications colleges receive and number of low-income students who matriculate. Our models suggest that NC saw an increase in applications and low-income student…

In this study I deployed quasi-experimental methods to explore enrollment responses to a unique statewide college promise program for adult students attending college within the two-year public postsecondary education sector in Tennessee. State policymakers implemented Tennessee Reconnect in 2018 to encourage adult students without a college…