This study sheds light on whether the provision of information on costs, financing options, and returns of college education results in higher application and college enrollment rates. Based on a behavioral intervention with more than 1,000 high school students in Germany, we provide evidence that the provision of such information increases college application and enrollment rates, in particular for students with a pre-treatment study intention. The size of the enrollment effect becomes larger for students if neither of the parents has a college degree. Treated students are slightly more likely than those in the control group to persist in college for two years after enrollment. In contrast to other studies, our results indicate that a low-cost intervention, with a bundle of various information on college education, can be an effective tool to encourage students to translate their college intentions into actual enrollment. We show this in a setting without tuition fees.

本研究阐明了提供有关大学教育的成本、融资选择和回报的信息是否会导致更高的申请率和大学入学率。基于对德国 1,000 多名高中生的行为干预，我们提供的证据表明，提供此类信息可提高大学申请率和入学率，尤其是对于具有治疗前研究意向的学生。如果父母双方都没有大学学历，学生的入学效应会更大。接受治疗的学生比对照组的学生在入学后坚持上大学两年的可能性略高。与其他研究相比，我们的结果表明，低成本的干预，以及关于大学教育的各种信息，可以成为鼓励学生将他们的大学意图转化为实际入学的有效工具。我们在没有学费的环境中展示这一点。