Leveraging Information Interventions to Expand Access to Social Programs

Community colleges enroll approximately 40 percent of all US undergraduates and they enroll a disproportionate share of low-income and first-generation college students in higher education. For instance, low-income college students are three times more likely to attend a community college compared to high-income students. Many community college students intend to transfer, but few actually do so. Closing this gap between intention and successful transfer is a promising strategy for increasing bachelor’s degree attainment in the United States, and for reducing socioeconomic disparities in college completion that have widened over time. This study proposes to build on the foundation of related research by providing community college students in Virginia with (1) personalized information about their progress towards transfer and meeting GAAs at four-year institutions across the state, (2) personalized guidance about specific four-year institutions in the state where students appear to have a high probability of success upon transfer based on the transfer and degree attainment trajectories of similar students from prior cohorts, and (3) access to remote, one-on-one advisors who will use course mapping tools and other technology solutions to support students to plan and execute a personalized transfer preparation pathway.