Experimental Evidence on Which Academic Outcomes Nudging Can Shift for First-Year College Students from High-FRL Schools

Abstract

Administrators are increasingly focused on at-risk student performance/persistence. Informational campaigns to shift behavior are tempting, given widely-publicized successes by nudges regarding college access. However, there is minimal evidence on the effectiveness of nudges on college success. We provide results from a low-cost two-arm experimental-assignment nudging campaign for first-year students at a high-research university; showing persistence effects (12 percentage-point) for one treatment arm, and treatment estimates on cumulative GPA and credits earned that align in magnitude with the most-similar other intervention (Castleman & Meyer, 2020). Our work can inform the design of future nudging interventions for college performance and persistence.

Keywords: nudging, persistence, first-year, postsecondary success, food security

JEL Classification: I23