The persistently low college enrollment and completion rates of youth from poor families are partly attributable to their uncertainty about whether college is affordable. In the current system, concrete information about college costs arrives at the end of high school and is only available to those who complete a complex application. Evidence…

This discussion of how the effectiveness of federal student aid can be evaluated is framed in terms of three questions: (1) Has federal student aid expanded educational opportunity; that is, has it encouraged the enrollment and broadened the educational choices of disadvantaged students? (2) Has federal student aid made the distribution of higher…