SMART Money: Do Financial Incentives Encourage College Students to Study Science?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Federal Aid Programming Effects: Fees, Work Study, and Loan Default

Abstract

The National SMART Grant is a financial aid program providing $4,000 to college juniors and seniors studying science majors. Using administrative data from Ohio public colleges, this paper investigates the success of this federal grant in motivating students to pursue science majors. It relies on a regression discontinuity design to identify the causal effect of program eligibility on the pursuit of science majors. It also estimates the effect of additional grant aid on persistence. Discontinuities exist around the 3.0 college GPA and around the Expected Family Contribution threshold necessary to qualify for the SMART grant. Initial results from one year of data indicate positive but not significant effects; however, further years of data will improve precision.

Author

• Brent Joseph Evans, Stanford University