Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

College and financial aid application processes are complicated. Many teenagers, particularly those who are economically disadvantaged, are not fully informed about these processes and therefore make suboptimal college application decisions (Avery & Hoxby 2013). Hoxby and Turner (2013) explicitly test the relative importance of several “information barriers,” or aspects of the college application process about which students may be miss- or under-informed. However, the authors focus on disadvantaged students who take the SAT and score in the top ten percent of all SAT-takers. This is an extremely unique set of disadvantaged students, given that at least one-third of high achieving, disadvantaged students do not take a college entrance exam (Hyman, Forthcoming), and among those who do, only a very small percentage score so high. In order to “move the needle” at a national level, and in a policy-relevant manner, it is critical to understand these information barriers among a wider population of students.

In this study, we ask two research questions: First, what type of students have unmet need regarding information and assistance in applying to college? Second, what are the most important college application barriers about which students need information and assistance? To answer these questions, we conduct a statewide, randomized experiment in Michigan in which we mail nearly 25,000 eleventh and twelfth grade students scoring a 20 or higher on the ACT (approximately the median in Michigan) a letter containing a link to a publicly available website that contains information and assistance about applying to college. The letter includes a student-specific password necessary to enter the website, allowing us to track which students navigate to the site and what types of information they seek there. We randomly vary the content of the letter, highlighting several different information barriers, and examining which barrier results in more students navigating to the website.

We find that black students are forty percent more likely than white students to navigate to the site (13.3% versus 9.5%, respectively). Poor students are fifteen percent more likely than non-poor students (11.0% versus 9.6%). High scoring students are more likely than relatively lower scoring students (13.8% versus 7.6%). Poor, high scoring students and black, high scoring students are the most likely to navigate to the site (16.9% and 17.7%, respectively). We find that the letter in which we highlight college affordability produces a take-up rate eighteen percent higher than the letter in which we highlight college choice, and thirty-seven percent higher than the letter highlighting understanding the application process, with take-up rates of 12.2, 10.3, and 8.9%, respectively. Interestingly, our fourth letter version, which highlights all three barriers, produces the lowest take-up rate, 8.5%, perhaps suggesting that providing too much information overloads student decision-making. Finally, students who navigate to the website are more likely to seek out webpages, and click on links to outside websites, related to college affordability than other aspects of the college application process.