How Well Do Students Understand “Free Community College”? Promise Programs as Informational Interventions

Given the low price of community college relative to need-based aid, last-dollar “free college” (i.e., Promise) programs often only marginally reduce students’ real costs. this reality, some claim that these impact students largely through “messaging”: information conveying affordability college. However, it is unclear how such messaging works in concept or practice. Drawing on a case study, I document paradoxical ways Promise alter understanding affordability. Reflecting program marketing, typically understood as simply college,” with little grasp structure eligibility criteria. Many believed paid their tuition, but administrative data showed funded very few students. Student misunderstanding traceable baseline conception “expensive” and tenuous aid. programs’ “messaging effects” are predicated upon prevalent misconceptions. The “message” mixture clarification misdirection, revealing factual situation (that “tuition-free”) an equivocation making free).