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Three Essays On The Economics Of Higher Education: How Students And Colleges Respond To Financial Aid Programs, Jilleah Gayle Welch

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three chapters that examine the impact of financial aid programs on students' enrollment decisions, student outcomes, and colleges' financial decisions. In the first chapter, I use discontinuities in eligibility criteria for a large merit scholarship program to examine the impact of aid on community college students' outcomes both during and after college. Community colleges enroll a large share of first-time freshmen but represent a much smaller share of financial aid research. Furthermore, researchers have focused on the impact of aid on enrollment and outcomes during college, but none have yet considered the impact of aid on …