Research

The Impact of Merit-Based Scholarships on Student Outcomes: Evidence from Ontario

Merit-based scholarships have long been used by post-secondary institutions to make higher education more attractive and accessible to students by rewarding high performance. Despite their widespread use, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of such scholarships in achieving their objectives remains limited. This study employs a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to evaluate the impact of a large, lump-sum merit-based entrance scholarship on the enrolment rates of domestic undergraduate students at the University of Toronto. I find that being awarded a scholarship has no statistically significant effect on a student’s likelihood of accepting their admission offer and enroling at the University. However, a heterogeneity analysis reveals a positive effect on enrolment rates among students from lower-income neighborhoods and those residing farther from the University of Toronto, highlighting the potential benefits of a more targeted scholarship design. 

The Grade Recession: Grade Inflation in the Public Education Market