The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) commissioned this paper to help policy leaders and decision makers understand the impact of selected state financial aid programs on students' choices--choices of which college to attend, where to attend college, and even whether to attend college at all. As the paper shows, states have created grant-aid programs for a variety of reasons and through a variety of funding sources. This paper examines grant-aid programs in 11 states in varying degrees of detail. In some states, all the need-, merit-, and blended-aid programs are described, along with the policy environments that gave rise to them. In other states, only some of the programs are analyzed because they served as the most useful examples. This analysis identifies the start date for the programs and describes the qualifications for eligibility, the legislation that established the programs, and the policies and political environments involved in creating them. The authors make several recommendations to states that are considering creating grant-aid programs. First, states need to work together with the federal government and institutions to mitigate the increasing cost of college. The authors also recommend that states learn from other states and their experiences about state grant-aid programs. Finally, the authors challenge states to conduct empirical studies of their aid programs when possible. (Contains 7 tables and 147 endnotes.)