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Rethinking College Choice in America

William T. Grant Scholars
June 2010
May 2015
$350,000
Sara Goldrick-Rab
University of Wisconsin, Madison
How does financial aid affect the lives of low-income college students? The United States spends nearly $100 billion in financial aid each year to help more students attain a college degree. Yet, low-income students continue to complete college at relatively low rates. This William T. Grant Scholar is using her award to study the impact of financial aid on the living conditions and relationships of low-income college students. She is also examining how living conditions and relationships affect students’ daily decisions, emotional experiences, and sleep patterns; and estimating how those effects relate to college completion. This is a student-level randomized trial in which a scholarship is randomly assigned to 3,600 college students (1,600 in the experimental condition and 2,000 in the control group). The investigator will try to determine whether students are simply unresponsive to financial incentives, or whether other factors diminish the effectiveness of financial aid.
Focus Areas of this Grant
18 - 22
Male, Female
Low Income/Working Poor
Rural, Suburban, Urban
American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Latino or Hispanic, White, Other Race/Ethnicity
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