How does a policy of free tuition affect student applications to universities? This article assesses how free tuition influences applications in terms of the selectivity of the university, length of the degree program, cost of the program, and application to a program in the STEM field. The study based on a quasi-experimental design was carried…

Meeting today's prospective college students where they are is key to staying ahead of current enrollment challenges. Understanding which messages resonate with which students and at certain parts of the enrollment funnel helps to ensure institutions are getting the right message, to the right student, at the right time in their journey. By…

Based on the life and educational histories of sixteen high-achieving, working-class girls applying to high-tariff universities, this paper rekindles debates about the role of agency within the decision-making process of young people who might not otherwise be expected to apply to such institutions. It draws on Margaret Archer's theorising to…

We study the effects of a decrease in college tuition on college application and enrollment behavior. Specifically, we use student-level data to analyze a Colorado law that granted in-state tuition to undocumented students residing in Colorado. We find an increase in the credit hours and persistence of newly enrolled and likely undocumented…

Undocumented immigrants face learning, compliance, and psychological costs when confronting in-state resident tuition (ISRT) policy implementation. Building on administrative burdens scholarship and using qualitative data from 19 semi-structured interviews with undocumented youth immigrants, this article examines administrative burdens that may…

High-achieving, low-income students attend selective colleges at far lower rates than upper-income students with similar achievement. Behavioral biases, intensified by complexity and uncertainty in the admissions and aid process, may explain this gap. In a large-scale experiment we test an early commitment of free tuition at a flagship university.…

In the United States, some states allow undocumented immigrants to benefit from in-state resident tuition policy at public colleges and universities, a benefit aimed at improving accessibility to higher education. Yet, undocumented immigrants face bureaucratic procedures and requirements that may discourage them from applying and delay or hamper…

Do students respond to sticker prices or actual prices when applying to college? These costs differ for students eligible for financial aid. Students who do not understand this may not apply to some colleges because of the perceived high cost. We test for this form of "sticker shock" using College Board data on SAT scores sent, as a…

Undocumented immigrant students represent 2% of the total U.S. higher education population. Due to their citizenship status, many undocumented high school students encounter barriers to college access including prohibitive admissions policies, increased tuition rates, and funding restrictions. Some undocumented students experience anxiety,…

One of the most critical functions on campus is enrollment management. As budgets become tighter and institutions rely more heavily on tuition, the competition to "make the class" intensifies. How can institutional research help inform strategic planning in such a market? This paper will discuss the way that institutional researchers can…

Using the data published by "Boston" magazine and the New England Board of Higher Education's "2016 Guide to New England Colleges & Universities," Marc Rubin examined higher education institutions (HEIs) prices, defined as tuition and plus fees, as a function of several independent factors including: (1) Percentage of…

As of September 2012, the undergraduate tuition fee cap at English universities was raised from £3375 to £9000 per annum. This article explores the rationales underpinning prospective students' decision whether or not to apply to higher education following the fee increase, specifically, how this decision is influenced by perceptions of…

The relevance of studying the stated problem is due to the fact that for increasing the efficiency of higher education marketing it is necessary to take into account several factors, namely, factors that impact the choice of a university and an academic program by enrollees, as well as socio-psychological characteristics of the latter, while…

This paper explores the relationship between tuition fees charged by MBA programmes and the number of applications to these programmes, using a panel dataset comprising universities from countries across the world. Using Three-Stage-Least-Squares methods for simultaneous equations, we find a two-way relationship between tuition fees and…

Several German states recently introduced tuition fees for university education. We investigate whether these tuition fees influence the mobility of university applicants. Based on administrative data of applicants for medical schools in Germany, we estimate the effect of tuition fees on the probability of applying for a university in the home…