A Promising Experiment to Show Competitive Low-Income Students that They Belong at Elite Public Universities

Historically, state university systems have played a pivotal role in helping to improve the economic mobility of working class and low-income residents, through the provision of affordable higher education. Over the last two decades, though, most public flagship and research universities have prioritized status and rankings, making them more elite and expensive. In so doing, they have, inadvertently or not, sent a message to less advantaged students that they don’t belong on these exclusive campuses. One of the country’s most prestigious flagships, however, is combating this trend with an experiment that has had promising results.

In 2015, the University of Michigan was one of the least socioeconomically diverse public flagships in the country. That year, only 13 percent of the university’s freshman class received Pell Grants, which go to the lowest-income students. The leaders of the university recognized that many low-income, high-achieving Michigan residents believed that the state’s flagship campus was out of reach and did not bother applying. To counter those beliefs, the university took the unusual step of asking higher education expert and economist Sue Dynarski and her research team to conduct a randomized control trial to test how targeted communications about a new scholarship program might encourage these students to apply and enroll at the Ann Arbor campus.

The High Achieving Involved Leader (HAIL) Scholarship covers the full cost of tuition for four years at the University of Michigan. Eligibility for the scholarship requires Michigan residency, low-income status according to free or reduced-price meals data from public school records, and markers of academic achievement, including GPA and SAT scores that the university determines each year.

While similar scholarships are available to financially needy students at other public universities, what makes the HAIL program unique is that it alerts potential HAIL scholars that they have been chosen for the award in the fall of their senior year, prior to their application to the university. If admitted, the offer of free tuition is unconditional for HAIL recipients: unlike other means-tested scholarships from the university, the award is not contingent upon continued proof of financial need or on specific markers of academic achievement while in college.

With HAIL communications taking place in the fall, researchers were able to analyze the impact of the scholarship strategy on both enrollment and application rates. Early findings indicate that the approach has been remarkably successful: a working paper from March 2022, entitled “The Power of Certainty,” found that the HAIL intervention increased application rates at the Ann Arbor campus by 28 percentage points, admission by 10 percentage points, and enrollment by 9 percentage points, compared to low-income students who did not receive the HAIL offer. Thanks at least in part to the HAIL scholarship, the share of freshmen receiving Pell Grants at the University of Michigan’s flagship campus was up to 20 percent in the 2019-20 academic year.

As a graduate policy student at the University of Michigan, I support the HAIL research team by investigating the primary factors that drive postsecondary decisions for low-income high school seniors across the state. I believe that the program has been effective for two important reasons.

First, the four-year tuition guarantee eases the concerns held by many low-income and working class students that they will not be able to afford to attend the university. Because the notifications that HAIL scholars receive make clear that they are eligible to receive additional financial aid to cover their living expenses, those admitted often receive the equivalent of a full ride. The upfront financial guarantee is crucial because, as I found as a college advisor to many low-income students in Boston, the only “match” that matters is a school students feel confident they will be able to afford to attend. There is no point in wasting time on applications for universities they believe won’t adequately subsidize their cost of attendance.

The second reason may even be more crucial. By reaching out to students in the fall of their senior year, the university is sending a message to these students that they are wanted, and that they belong at the flagship campus. Too often, unwittingly or not, public flagship and research universities have been sending the opposite message, as they raise their academic standards, lower their acceptance rate, and allocate an increasingly large share of their financial aid dollars to pursue affluent out-of-state students.

Even in its early years, the HAIL scholarship appears to be a low-cost, high-impact strategy to support the application and enrollment of low-income students at the University of Michigan’s flagship campus. The relative simplicity of this equity-focused initiative means that it could easily be applied at other state universities and flagship campuses across the country. If adopted across the country, a scholarship program like HAIL—where students are guaranteed free-tuition at their state flagship before they even apply—would likely help combat the current trend of continued exclusivity at state universities and support the long term economic well-being and intergenerational mobility of low-income students.

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