Inducing Cross-Sector Enrollment for Community College Students through Burden Reduction

Rachel Baker, Michael Hill, Gala Ledezma, Joshua Dorman, Loris Fagioli, Pablo Bezem, Michael Cooper and XunFei Li

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2026, vol. 116, 371-375

Abstract: Although most community college students intend to earn a bachelor’s degree, few successfully transfer to a four-year university. California’s cross-enrollment policy was intended to reduce transfer barriers by allowing community college students to take courses at public universities, yet participation remains extremely low. We present results from a student-level randomized experiment at three California community colleges designed to reduce informational, logistical, and financial barriers to cross-enrollment. Despite substantial student interest, the intervention increased applications by only 1.2 percentage points and successful enrollment by 0.7 percentage points. Results underscore the limits of individual-level supports in the face of complex procedural barriers.

JEL-codes: H75 I23 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20261104

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