The Effectiveness of a Low-Cost Intervention Designed to Improve Disadvantaged Students’ Four-Year College Enrollment Rates

• In Event: 435 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 12. Social Capital across Schooling Contexts

Abstract

This paper assesses the effectiveness of an intervention designed to enhance the social and cultural capital of disadvantaged students, thereby improving their likelihood of attending a four-year college or university. We recruited over 6,000 high school juniors from low-income high schools to apply to a free program offering college and financial aid information and application assistance. We then randomly assigned these students to a control group or to two variants of the V-SOURCE program-- V-SOURCE Milestones or V-SOURCE Complete. The program lasted from the spring of students’ junior year in high school through the summer following their senior year. V-SOURCE Milestones provided automated email and text messages about college and financial aid, access to an information-rich website, and gift card incentives for completing key college and financial aid application milestones. V-SOURCE Complete included all the components of Milestones plus virtual access to personalized assistance from an advisor. This draft paper describes preliminary estimates of the effects of these interventions on self-reported college application and enrollment outcomes. The revised version for the conference will emphasize effects on college enrollment as measured by administrative data from the National Student Clearinghouse. It will also examine effects on potential mediators (e.g., SAT taking, financial aid application) and assess the extent to which effects are larger for key subgroups.

Authors

• Meredith Phillips, University of California-Los Angeles

• Sarah Reber, University of California-Los Angeles