Working Paper: NBER ID: w26509
Authors: Meredith Phillips; Sarah J. Reber
Abstract: This paper describes the effects of two variants of a virtual college-counseling intervention designed to reduce informational and social support barriers to college application and enrollment among socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Students who were randomly assigned to the program felt more supported during the college application process and applied more broadly to four-year colleges, but they were not more likely to be accepted or enroll. We show that treatment effects on intermediate outcomes were larger for the types of students we anticipated would most need additional support during the college application process and discuss why the program did not improve college enrollment, while some other similar-seeming programs have improved enrollment. We conclude that low-intensity programs may work for some students, but targeting can be difficult. And many students probably need in-person and more intensive help to increase four-year enrollments.
Keywords: college enrollment; virtual advising; random assignment; socioeconomic disparities
JEL Codes: I23; I24; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Feelings of support (I31) | College enrollment (I23) |
| College applications (I23) | College enrollment (I23) |
| Virtual advising interventions (C91) | Feelings of support (I31) |
| Virtual advising interventions (C91) | College applications (I23) |