Low-income students who participated in an individualized coaching program that helped them navigate the college-application process were more likely to enroll in selective colleges and four-year institutions, new research shows.
Christopher Avery, a professor of public policy at Harvard University, discusses his three-year randomized, controlled trial of Minnesota’s College Possible after-school program in a new working paper posted online by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
While overall enrollment figures for the College Possible students and the control group were about the same, students differed in where they chose to go to school. About 45 percent of students in College Possible enrolled in a four-year college and 19 percent in a two-year college. Of their nonparticipating peers, 34 percent decided on a four-year college; 30 percent chose a two-year school.
