College Application Mistakes and the Design of Information Policies at Scale
Abstract
In this paper, we present the results of a multi-year collaboration with policy-makers to design and evaluate whether information policies implemented at scale can effectively improve students’ outcomes. Using a series of nationwide surveys, we find that 40% of students do not apply to their preferred college and major, and 10% of these students would have strictly benefited by including these programs. Upon these results, we implemented with the Ministry of Education of Chile a large-scale field experiment for college admissions, which included personalized information about program characteristics, students’ admission probabilities, and alternative major recommendations. The intervention significantly reduced application mistakes, increasing the probability of assignment for unmatched students by 20% and the probability of improving the assignment of undermatched students by 38%. After scaling-up the policy, the intervention approximately doubled the matching probability for unmatched and undermatched students and tripled the enrollment likelihood for initially unmatched students.
- Coauthors: Anais Fabre, Tomás Larroucau, Christopher Neilson, Ignacio Rios
- Published: Journal of Political Economy (R&R)
- Date: 2024
