Universities use merit-based scholarships as a recruitment tool to attract and enrol academically talented students. Various literature concludes scholarships can have an overall positive impact on the enrolment yield of new students. This article provides an analysis of the merit-based scholarship programme for new students at a Japan-based…

Georgia offers two merit-based scholarships to in-state college students: HOPE Scholarships, which provide partial tuition support, and Zell Miller Scholarships, which provide full tuition support but with stricter eligibility and retention conditions. Studies have examined retention of these scholarships but not other dynamics, including gaining…

The United States has widely experimented with merit-based financial aid to make college more accessible and affordable for its youth. Varying in design and benefits, these state-run programs subsidize college costs for academically meritorious high-school graduates. While broadly linked to higher college attendance the distribution of aid…

While the popularity of state-financed merit-based scholarships has increased since the 1980s, policymakers struggle to maintain these programs because of growing costs. Some have tried to manage this tradeoff through eligibility changes or award amounts; however, little empirical research exists on the effectiveness of these changes. We add to…

Objective/Research Question: Community college "Promise" programs have proliferated recently, particularly in areas with many low-income, academically struggling students. Many Promise programs restrict eligibility by high school performance but set eligibility thresholds quite low. As such they function as "low-bar" merit…

We replicate and extend prior work on Florida's Bright Futures merit aid scholarship to consider its effect on college enrollment and degree completion. We estimate causal impacts using a regression discontinuity design to exploit SAT thresholds that strongly determine eligibility. We find no positive impacts on attendance or attainment, and…

The Tuition Opportunity Program for Students (subsequently renamed the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, also known as TOPS), Louisiana's merit-based student aid program, was created via Act 1375 of the 1997 Regular Legislative Session. The first freshman class to receive TOPS awards entered postsecondary education in the fall of 1998. Act…

We replicate and extend prior work on Florida's Bright Futures merit aid scholarship to consider its effect on college enrollment and degree completion. We estimate causal impacts using a regression discontinuity design to exploit SAT thresholds that strongly determine eligibility. We find no positive impacts on attendance or attainment, and…

Background: Promise scholarship programs designed to increase college access and success are proliferating across the country. However, little research has investigated how such programs are implemented or how differences in program design, such as the inclusion of merit requirements, could affect the success of these initiatives. Project/Research…

The COVID-19 pandemic has created and will continue to create uncertainty in all facets of everyday life, exacerbating current challenges -- and generating new ones -- for every sector of the economy, including postsecondary education. As the pandemic continues, postsecondary education faces increasing pressures as concerns about health and…

States collectively invest over $12 billion a year to support over 4.5 million students through financial aid programs. This interactive 50-State Comparison provides a look at the specific criteria employed in the top two largest aid programs by state. This interactive resource includes details about which state programs are linked to measuring…

This study evaluates the effect of Florida's Bright Future Program on student college choices. We used regression discontinuity design to estimate the effect of two award levels, which had different SAT/ACT thresholds, on the probability of students choosing in-state public colleges and four-year public colleges. The most consistent and robust…

This study examines the impact of merit-aid programs on secondary course taking patterns. Specifically, this study uses difference-in-differences to analyze state-level Advanced Placement (AP) participation and examination data pre and post merit-aid adoption. Results indicate increases in AP participation and number of total examinations after…

We examine the impacts of being awarded a Cal Grant, among the most generous state merit aid programs. We exploit variation in eligibility rules using GPA and family income cutoffs that are ex ante unknown to applicants. Cal Grant eligibility increases degree completion by 2 to 5 percentage points in our reduced form estimates. Cal Grant also…