Long was born in
Baltimore, Maryland, in 1973. She spent most of her childhood in
Columbus, Ohio, but attended and completed high school in
Naperville, Illinois, at
Naperville North High School. She earned her A.B. in Economics with a Certificate in Afro-American Studies from
Princeton University and her Ph.D. in economics from
Harvard University. She began teaching at Harvard in 2000. She was Faculty Director of the Ed.D. and Ph.D. programs from 2010 to 2013 and Academic Dean from 2013 to 2017. She was appointed Dean on July 1, 2018.[1]
Research
Long's research focuses on the economics of education with particular attention on the transition from high school to higher education and beyond.[3] She has examined factors that influence student enrollment decisions, choice, and persistence in post-secondary education.[4] Much of her work investigates the impact of education policies and programs, and several projects apply insights from behavioral economics to education.[5]
Long has conducted several large, randomized controlled trials to establish the causal effects of interventions designed to better support students. Working with co-authors, she conducted a major study on the impact of information and assistance on completing financial aid forms (i.e. the FAFSA).[6] The study contributed to quantitative evidence on the detrimental effects complex processes can have on educational attainment, and it has been cited in efforts to simplify the federal financial aid application.[7][8] Long followed this work with studies on the effectiveness of interventions that focus on helping families save for higher education[9] and students persist in college.[10] She has also written about how the government and institutions could help students to make better educational decisions by providing clear, easy-to-access information.[11]
Long has also used of state administrative data to explore long-standing questions in higher education, and she produced some of the earliest large-scale studies on the causal effects of post-secondary remediation,[12][13] different types of instructors,[14][15] and class size[16] on college student outcomes. Additionally, several of her papers explore the supply side of higher education by studying the reactions of colleges and universities to changes in policy.[17][18]
Long was honored in 2021 with a Spencer Mentor award for her contributions towards bolstering career opportunities for those pursuing work in education research.[20]
Castleman, Benjamin and Bridget Terry Long. (2016) “Looking Beyond Enrollment: The Causal Effect of Need-Based Grants on College Access, Persistence, and Graduation.ʺ Journal of Labor Economics, 34(4), 1023-1073. doi:10.1086/686643
Bettinger, Eric, Angela Boatman, and Bridget Terry Long. (2013) “Student Supports: Developmental Education and Other Academic Programs.” Cecilia Rouse, Lisa Barrow, and Thomas Brock, Eds. Future of Children: Postsecondary Education in the U.S., 23(1), Spring. doi: 10.1353/foc.2013.0003
Bettinger, Eric and Bridget Terry Long. (2010) “Does Cheaper Mean Better? The Impact of using Adjunct Instructors on Student Outcomes.” Review of Economics and Statistics 92(3): 598–613. doi: 10.1162/rest_a_00014
Long, Bridget Terry (2004), "How Have College Decisions Changed Overtime? An Application of the Conditional Logistic Choice Model." Journal of Econometrics, vol. 121, no. 1–2: pp. 271–296. DOI: 10.1016/j.jeconom.2003.10.004
Long, Bridget Terry. (2004), "How do Financial Aid Policies affect Colleges? The Institutional Impact of the Georgia HOPE Scholarship." Journal of Human Resources, vol. 39, no. 3. doi: 10.2307/3559038
^Bettinger, E. P.; Long, B. T.; Oreopoulos, P.; Sanbonmatsu, L. (2012-08-01). "The Role of Application Assistance and Information in College Decisions: Results from the H&R Block Fafsa Experiment". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 127 (3): 1205–1242.
doi:
10.1093/qje/qjs017.
ISSN0033-5533.
^Bettinger, Eric P.; Long, Bridget Terry (2009). "Addressing the Needs of Underprepared Students in Higher Education: Does College Remediation Work?". Journal of Human Resources. 44 (3): 736–771.
doi:
10.3368/jhr.44.3.736.
ISSN0022-166X.
S2CID197684327.
^Bettinger, Eric P; Long, Bridget Terry (2010). "Does Cheaper Mean Better? The Impact of Using Adjunct Instructors on Student Outcomes". Review of Economics and Statistics. 92 (3): 598–613.
doi:
10.1162/REST_a_00014.
ISSN0034-6535.
S2CID12119074.
^Bettinger, Eric P.; Long, Bridget Terry (2018). "Mass Instruction or Higher Learning? The Impact of College Class Size on Student Retention and Graduation". Education Finance and Policy. 13 (1): 97–118.
doi:
10.1162/edfp_a_00221.
ISSN1557-3060.
S2CID57566453.
^Long, Bridget Terry (2004). "How Do Financial Aid Policies Affect Colleges? The Institutional Impact of the Georgia HOPE Scholarship". The Journal of Human Resources. 39 (4): 1045–1066.
doi:
10.2307/3559038.
JSTOR3559038.