As more states begin to mandate that high school students file the FAFSA in order to graduate, a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) suggests that nudging students to apply for financial aid on a national and state-wide level does not increase college-going rates.
Earlier this summer, Texas saturated the news cycle when it became the second state to enact a law requiring students to complete the FAFSA, after Louisiana approved a similar policy in 2015. Louisiana’s efforts have so far shown positive results—the state’s overall graduation rate increased by 9.1 percentage points since 2012, compared with the 4.6 percentage point growth nationally. While a spokesperson from the Louisiana Department of Education said that the state “cannot definitively say” the increases are a direct result of the policy, officials “are hopeful the policy has positively influenced college enrollment and will continue to do so.”
However, the NBER report—produced through a collaboration of researchers at the University of Virginia, Harvard University, the University of Pittsburgh, and West Point—found that state-wide efforts that encourage students to file the FAFSA have no effect on enrollment.