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Random Assignment Process and the Sample MembersMDRC’s evaluation targeted students at BMCC, KCC, and LGCC who met the followingeligibility criteria when they entered the study:• Family income below 200 percent of the federal poverty level or eligible fora Pell Grant (or both)• In need of one or two developmental courses based on CUNY AssessmentTests 3• New student or continuing student who had earned 12 credits or fewer andhad at least a 2.0 grade point average• New York City resident• Said they were willing to attend college full time• In an ASAP-eligible major (the colleges excluded a few majors that have requirementsthat make graduating quickly difficult) 4The eligibility criteria for the evaluation mirror those for ASAP when the study started,with two exceptions. First, ASAP accepted some college-ready students who did not need anydevelopmental courses, but the evaluation did not. MDRC chose to focus on the effects ofASAP for students with developmental education needs. In fall 2009, the semester before theevaluation began, 77 percent of the students who began in ASAP across the six colleges neededone developmental course or more and 23 percent did not. 5 During the semesters of sampleintake, the ASAP programs at the three colleges in the evaluation enrolled only students withdevelopmental education needs, while the three colleges that were not in the evaluation continuedto enroll some college-ready students.Second, ASAP serves some students who are undocumented immigrants. These studentsare ineligible to receive federal or state financial aid and thus ineligible for the ASAPtuition waiver. The colleges in the evaluation continued to serve undocumented immigrantsduring the sample intake period, but because the evaluation was designed to test the effects of3 In other words, students need one math course, one English course, two math courses, two English courses,or one math course and one English course.4 The excluded majors at the time were: at BMCC, Allied Health Sciences, Pre-Clinical Nursing, ForensicScience, and Engineering Science; at KCC, Nursing; and at LGCC, Allied Health Sciences and EngineeringScience.5 Linderman and Kolenovic (2012).10