Abstract
Many students struggle to achieve their intended academic progress, often opting to
withdraw from courses, miss exams, or fail to pass them. Research indicates that young, inexperienced decision-makers face numerous psychological and behavioral barriers that hinder goal attainment. In this project, we test three interventions developed in collaboration with the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund (SELF) to examine whether targeted communication can help students adhere to their academic plans. The first two interventions test the effect of information about the financial consequences of completing or not completing credits. The third intervention tests the effect of offering a study success program targeting psychological and behavioral barriers to credit completion. We estimate effects on grades, credits and the tendency to fail/miss an exam. Outcomes will be captured both using administrative records and through an online survey at the end of the spring semester. The project is currently in the field, and the endline survey will be run in June 2026, giving us enough time to have the results ready for the conference.