Early impacts of the FAFSA requirement in Texas

Abstract

In 2021$-$22, Texas implemented a policy requiring all public high school seniors to complete a financial aid application. This paper examines the early impacts of this requirement on Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion rates and college enrollment using a difference-in-differences model. First, using a sample of high schools in Texas, I find that the FAFSA requirement increases FAFSA completion rates in public schools by $6.3$ percentage points relative to private schools. Second, using a multi-valued discrete treatment, I find positive effects on FAFSA completion rates across all treated schools, ranging from $3.1$ to $7$ percentage points. Furthermore, this increase in FAFSA completion rates is associated with an increase in college enrollment for schools with lower pre-treatment FAFSA completion rates.