How Do High-Achieving Low-Income Students Make Postsecondary Decisions? Identifying Mechanisms and Understanding Heterogeneity in the HAIL Financial Aid Intervention

Universities have tried to increase socioeconomic diversity through financial aid interventions, with some success. However, we know little about the combined effects of financial aid offers, options students consider, and how they assess their alternatives on the college decisions of high-achieving, low-income students. Sociologists Stefanie DeLuca and Elizabeth Burland will investigate how high-achieving, low-income students make postsecondary education decisions. They will conduct interviews with students who are eligible for the University of Michigan’s HAIL Scholarship, which provides full tuition and fees for four years of undergraduate study, for their project.