In 2016, the North Carolina legislature implemented the North Carolina Fixed Tuition Program. This policy ensures that, once enrolled, an undergraduate student's tuition rate at any of the state's four-year public colleges will not increase for eight consecutive semesters of enrollment. While touted as an effort to increase affordability by…

How have changes in the price of enrolling full time at public 2- and 4-year colleges affected student decisions about whether and where to enroll in college? Using local differences in the growth of tuition at community colleges and public 4-year colleges, we study the impact of public higher education tuition prices on the post-secondary…

This study focuses on tuition reset policies, where colleges reduce the published sticker price by at least 5%, and in many instances, much more. We use a difference-in-differences design to examine the effect of these policies on student enrollment disaggregated by race/ethnicity and a proxy for economic disadvantage. On average, these policies…

Community college baccalaureates (CCBs) provide an affordable pathway to baccalaureate-level education but increasing tuition rates present a potential financial barrier for students. Institutional aid as a cost-constraining mechanism has historically been less utilized in the 2-year sector when compared to traditional 4-year institutions. Yet,…

Administrative burden, or the frictions individuals experience in accessing public programs, has implications for whether and which eligible individuals receive aid. While prior research documents barriers to accessing federal financial aid, less is known about the extent to which state aid programs impose administrative burden, how administrative…

The COVID-19 pandemic poses financial challenges for students worldwide, especially for those in higher education where free and universal access is not guaranteed. Students in developed economies, a long-neglected group for pandemic studies, are not exceptions. The motivation of this study is to examine subjective financial well-being of…

This paper studies the causal impacts of public universities on the outcomes of their marginally admitted students. I use administrative admission records spanning all 35 public universities in Texas, which collectively enroll 10 percent of American public university students, to systematically identify and employ decentralized cutoffs in SAT/ACT…

Private nonprofit colleges are increasingly using tuition resets, or a decrease in sticker price by at least 5%, to attract new students and counter declining demand. While discounting tuition with institutional aid is a common practice to get accepted students to matriculate and to increase affordability, a tuition reset is a more transparent…

International student enrollment has become increasingly important in higher education financing as public appropriations for higher education and enrollments have declined. A critical consideration for U.S. public institutions -- in particular regional institutions that lack brand prestige -- is pricing. This research brief examines the methods…

The "2020 Tuition Discounting Study," based on survey responses from 361 private nonprofit NACUBO-member institutions, reports final institutional discount rates for academic year 2019-20 and preliminary estimates for academic year 2020-21. [This study was supported by Vemo Education. For the 2019 study, see ED608472.]

Objective: To quantify students' risk tolerance for in-person classes and willingness-to-pay for online-only instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants: 46 Columbia University public health graduate students. Methods: We developed a survey tool with a "standard gamble" exercise administered online by an interactive chat bot…

The "2019 Tuition Discounting Study," based on survey responses from 366 private nonprofit National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO)-member institutions, reports final institutional discount rates for academic year 2018-19 and preliminary estimates for academic year 2019-20. [This study was supported by…

Promise programs have grown in popularity as a way to provide college tuition/fees and other student supports in the hopes of increasing college access and success. This chapter presents results from a comprehensive mixed-methods evaluation of the Lake Tahoe Community College Promise Program. Using rich administrative data and interviews with…

In a time of increasing economic inequality, lower levels of government investment in higher education, and rising tuition costs, students vying for a college degree experience financial concerns as important influences on their college experience. An emerging body of literature has focused on the relationship between student finances and academic…

Administrative burdens scholarship has explored the factors influencing bureaucrats' perceptions and administrative discretion when entitled individuals seek policy benefits. Few studies, however, have recently investigated such phenomena with undocumented youth immigrants. Drawing from online web surveys and conducting a mixed methods study, I…