Workshop on Human Potential (Sara Goldrick-Rab, University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Sara Goldrick-Rab, Associate Professor of Educational Policy Studies and Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, will present, "Need-Based Financial Aid and College Persistence: Experimental Evidence from Wisconsin."

This event is co-sponsored with the Workshop on Education

***Lunch will be provided.***

Abstract: We examine the impacts of a private need-based college financial aid program distributing grants at random among first-year Pell Grant recipients at thirteen public Wisconsin universities. The Wisconsin Scholars Grant of $3,500 per year required full-time attendance. Estimates based on four cohorts of students suggest that offering the grant increased completion of a full-time credit load and rates of re-enrollment for a second year of college. An increase of $1,000 in total financial aid received during a student’s first year of college was associated with a 2.8 to 4.1 percentage point increase in rates of enrollment for the second year.

Bio: Sara Goldrick-Rab is Associate Professor of Educational Policy Studies and Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a scholar-activist with a deep commitment to bring research into policy and practice.  Her work examines the causes and consequences of inequality in postsecondary educational attainment.

The Workshop/Working Group on Human Potential is one of the core intellectual activities of the Center for Human Potential and Public Policy. It is an interdisciplinary forum for graduate students, post docs, and faculty whose work concerns behavior, health, and well-being across the lifespan and the ways in which technology and public policy shape human potential and achievement. The Workshop/Working group has active members in the areas of the social, behavioral, health, and policy sciences.

The Workshop/Working Group on Human Potential alternates between two types of sessions. Not only do we regularly invite outside speakers for a traditional "workshop" presentation, but we also provide a forum for faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students to present research-in-progress in order to receive critical and constructive feedback.