Code for: SHOULD COLLEGE BE “FREE”? EVIDENCE ON FREE COLLEGE, EARLY COMMITMENT, AND MERIT AID FROM AN EIGHT-YEAR RANDOMIZED TRIAL

We provide evidence on the effects of college financial aid from an eight-year randomized trial offering high school ninth graders a $12,000 merit-based grant. The program was designed to be free of tuition and fees at community colleges and substantially lower the cost of attending four-year colleges. During high school, eligibility for the grant increased students’ expectations of college attendance and low-cost college preparation effort, but not higher-cost effort. The program likely increased graduation from two-year colleges, perhaps because it was framed as making two-year college free, but did not affect overall college entry, graduation, employment, incarceration, or teen pregnancy. Additional analysis helps explain these modest effects and variation in results across prior studies.