TY - JOUR AU - Bettinger,Eric P. AU - Long,Bridget Terry AU - Oreopoulos,Philip AU - Sanbonmatsu,Lisa TI - The Role of Simplification and Information in College Decisions: Results from the H&R Block FAFSA Experiment JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 15361 PY - 2009 Y2 - September 2009 DO - 10.3386/w15361 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15361 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15361.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Eric Bettinger Stanford School of Education CERAS 522, 520 Galvez Mall Stanford, CA 94305 Tel: 650/736-7727 Fax: 650/723-9931 E-Mail: ebettinger@stanford.edu Bridget T. Long Harvard Grad School of Education Longfellow Hall 101 13 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 Tel: 617/495-3401 E-Mail: longbr@gse.harvard.edu Philip Oreopoulos Department of Economics University of Toronto 150 St. George Street Toronto, ON M5S 3G7 Canada E-Mail: philip.oreopoulos@utoronto.ca Lisa Sanbonmatsu NBER 1050 Massachusetts Avenue, 3rd Floor Cambridge, MA 02138 Tel: 617/613-1201 E-Mail: lsanbonm@nber.org M2 - featured in NBER digest on 2010-02-01 AB - Growing concerns about low awareness and take-up rates for government support programs like college financial aid have spurred calls to simplify the application process and enhance visibility. This project examines the effects of two experimental treatments designed to test of the importance of simplification and information using a random assignment research design. H&R Block tax professionals helped low- to moderate-income families complete the FAFSA, the federal application for financial aid. Families were then given an estimate of their eligibility for government aid as well as information about local postsecondary options. A second randomly-chosen group of individuals received only personalized aid eligibility information but did not receive help completing the FAFSA. Comparing the outcomes of participants in the treatment groups to a control group using multiple sources of administrative data, the analysis suggests that individuals who received assistance with the FAFSA and information about aid were substantially more likely to submit the aid application, enroll in college the following fall, and receive more financial aid. These results suggest that simplification and providing information could be effective ways to improve college access. However, only providing aid eligibility information without also giving assistance with the form had no significant effect on FAFSA submission rates. ER -