Informing students about college: Increasing enrollment using a behavioral intervention?

Abstract

This study sheds light on whether the provision of information on costs, financing options, and returns of college education results in higher application and college enrollment rates. Based on a behavioral intervention with more than 1,000 high school students in Germany, we provide evidence that the provision of such information increases college application and enrollment rates, in particular for students with a pre-treatment study intention. The size of the enrollment effect becomes larger for students if neither of the parents has a college degree. Treated students are slightly more likely than those in the control group to persist in college for two years after enrollment. In contrast to other studies, our results indicate that a low-cost intervention, with a bundle of various information on college education, can be an effective tool to encourage students to translate their college intentions into actual enrollment. We show this in a setting without tuition fees.