Can Short-Term College Outreach Benefit Disadvantaged Students? Evidence From the College Access Program

• In Event: 26.081 - Poster Session 3
  In Poster Session: 26.081-5 - College Student Access Poster Session

Abstract

In contrast to traditional college outreach programs, which often require a long-term commitment of participation, no research has evaluated the effectiveness of programs with an open-door participation model. This study uses data from the Philadelphia Educational Longitudinal Study (PELS) to evaluate the effectiveness of an alternative program model called the Philadelphia College Access Program. Here, college-bound students throughout the city are able to receive assistance applying for college at a local program center. Using a coarsened exact matching approach to reduce bias in estimates of the treatment effect, I find that students who visited the College Access Program centers had a higher probability to submit an application to college and were more likely to enroll in a four year college.

Author

• George Spencer, Harvard University