September 9, 2026
When fear of college costs discourages students from applying, they lose out on a lifetime of opportunity—and so do the communities where they live. As a growing number of places implement scholarship programs, often called “Promise” programs, to boost college-going, promote student success, and meet the needs of local job markets, policymakers and practitioners want to know: How can they design tuition-free college programs that work? The Columbus Promise offers some answers.
Beginning with the class of 2022, the Columbus Promise allows any graduate of Columbus City Schools to attend Columbus State Community College (CSCC) tuition free and provides students with a $500/semester stipend, bus passes, and tailored student support. As part of a team of experts from the Upjohn Institute, we have evaluated the Columbus Promise since it began. The Columbus Promise launched as a three-year pilot but has since been extended to three more graduating classes. Now, based on evidence from the complete pilot program, we have nine important insights for local policymakers and program designers.
In our evaluation, we compare the first three cohorts of Columbus Promise recipients (high school graduating classes of 2022, 2023, and 2024) to a group made up of Columbus City Schools students from the classes of 2017 to 2021 who attended CSCC within one year. Our methods are detailed in the report. Here is what we found:
[1] Promise programs don’t have to be expensive to pay off. Place-based scholarships vary in their design and cost, and the Columbus Promise is among the less expensive programs because it covers attendance at a single community college and pays for tuition after other forms of aid have been awarded. These features make the scholarship component affordable for the community while offering a model that can be replicated in many settings.
[2] Well-designed Promise programs expand college access. One of the chief goals of the Columbus Promise partners is to increase the share of Columbus City Schools graduating seniors who go on to college. In this, the pilot period has been an unequivocal success. Funders and legislators may worry that programs achieve this goal by encouraging students who would otherwise pursue bachelor’s degrees to go to community college instead. But evidence from Columbus shows this is not the case: scholarships for community college can boost overall college-going without undermining four-year institutions.
As the figure below shows, overall college enrollment jumped dramatically after the Columbus Promise was introduced, driven by greater enrollment in community college, and it has remained high during the three years of the pilot program. By contrast, the change in the rate of four-year enrollment was small and not statistically significant. This is among the strongest evidence yet that a well-designed Promise program expands the pipeline rather than just moving students around within it—a critical point for policymakers and funders who want to make sure Promise programs pay off.
[3] Enrollment gains translate to increases in credential and degree attainment even if completion rates remain unchanged. Because many students at community colleges attend part-time while working or caring for family members, students may take several years to complete their credentials, and completion rates tend to be lower than at four-year institutions.
An important question for policymakers is whether Promise programs can succeed in producing more skilled workers even if completion rates do not increase. In the case of the Columbus Promise, the answer is yes. Although three-year completion rates remained at pre-Promise levels, 70 students from the high school class of 2022 (the only group with access to Columbus Promise support for the full three years), had earned associate degrees by 2025—32 more than what would have been expected without the scholarship. Similarly, 71 students completed certificates—37 more than would have been expected. By substantially broadening the number of students on a post-secondary pathway, a community can gain more skilled and educated workers.
[4] A goal of Promise programs is to provide college access to students who would not otherwise go to college. These students tend to face more barriers, and some may struggle even with extra support in place. Students with financial barriers also often face other challenges to college completion, including less academic preparation, lack of transportation, and conflicts with work or family caregiving responsibilities.
Well-designed Promise programs provide targeted support to help students succeed. In the case of the Columbus Promise, the partners coordinate college visits for high school seniors during the school year to help them prepare for the transition. Orientation sessions over the summer help students through financial aid, registration, and course selection. Still, policymakers and program designers should anticipate that completion rates are likely to be lower for this group than for other students, even when colleges provide high-touch advising.
[5] Expanding access is no guarantee of successful completion. While enrollment impacts in Columbus have been large and unambiguous, completion impacts are more mixed. Columbus Promise students keep pace with the comparison group on some measures, but credit completion and grades run somewhat lower. Programs built to increase enrollment through a tuition-free college message should expect this pattern. Weaker average results do not mean such scholarships are a bad idea; it means they’re insufficient by themselves to accomplish the goals of degree completion and creation of a more skilled workforce.
[6] Promise programs are more successful when partner colleges innovate to improve student success. CSCC has worked hard to strengthen support for Columbus Promise students, adding dedicated sections of gateway math and English courses with in-class tutors and requiring more regular meetings with advisers. There are early signs these efforts are succeeding, with completion patterns improving as cohorts progress. The third cohort of Columbus Promise students (class of 2024 graduates) shows stronger first- to second-semester retention rates than earlier cohorts at the same stage. This improvement suggests that the "access first, completion second" sequencing can work as long as investments in support follow.
[7] Persistent differences by sex underscore the need for strategies that will help men. Across all three Columbus Promise cohorts, female students consistently outperform male students on completion, GPA, and reenrollment/retention relative to their respective comparison groups. Male students often show real gains in credits attempted but smaller increases or even decreases in credits completed with a C or better. This pattern is not unique to Columbus Promise students and serves as a signal that pathways, advising, or engagement strategies designed to reach male students are needed even within an otherwise successful program.
[8] Overall gains in access and completion can mask different outcomes among groups. In Columbus, students with disabilities and graduates of the district’s lowest-performing high schools appear not to be benefiting from the Columbus Promise. Of the 381 students with disabilities in the high school class of 2022, only one went on to use the Columbus Promise and complete an associate degree within three years. For students from the lowest-performing high schools, defined by their Ohio Department of Education Performance Index score, associate degree completion declined relative to the comparison group in two of three cohorts (although certificate completion rose).
The broader lesson is that rising average rates of credential attainment may mask substantial inequalities. Strategies to serve high-need students must be implemented well before high-school graduation to make the benefits of a Promise scholarship available to all.
[9] Dual enrollment and other methods for earning college credit while in high school may do more for completion than any post-enrollment intervention. Not only do dual enrollment, Advanced Placement, or programs like Ohio’s College Credit Plus (CCP) Program allow students to get a head start on earning credits toward a degree; they also appear to help with academic success. Students who took CCP courses in high school outperformed their peers on nearly every academic outcome, including associate degree completion.
For programs like the Columbus Promise that partner with a K-12 district, program designs that incorporate culturally relevant career and college awareness in elementary and middle school, as well as targeted advising for first-generation college students, assist in improving all students’ readiness for dual enrollment opportunities.
A shared mission
In Columbus, the city, school district, community college, and college-access organization came together around a shared mission: to expand post-secondary opportunities and improve workforce outcomes for students and the community. They invested in independent evaluation, learning from findings that emerged from rigorous data analysis, and they engaged in genuine and sustained collaboration to continually strengthen the systems serving their students.
As communities across the nation build their own Promise programs, the lessons of Columbus' pilot period provide a roadmap for policymakers and practitioners alike.
The Upjohn Institute team that led this study, as well as the Year 1 and Year 2 reports, is made up of nationally recognized experts in Promise program evaluation. For two decades, the institute has worked with more than 50 communities to design and strengthen place-based scholarship programs that aim to expand college opportunities, build a skilled workforce, and create thriving communities. Learn more at the Promise Programs Hub.
Experts
