In December 2019, Congress enacted and the President signed the Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education Act (FUTURE Act; P.L. 116-91). The law The law amends the Higher Education Act (HEA) to permanently authorize mandatory funding for grant programs to support HBCUs and MSIs. Authorization for this funding had expired…

This report describes the design, methods, and results of the 2016/20 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:16/20) conducted by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). It is the second follow-up with a cohort of bachelor's degree recipients originally identified during the 2015-16 National…

As overall student loan indebtedness in the United States has increased over the years, many borrowers have found themselves unable to repay their student loans. Ordinarily, declaring bankruptcy is a means by which a debtor may discharge--that is, obtain relief from--debts he is unable to repay. However, Congress, based upon its determination that…

Today, institutions of higher education may charge whatever they wish for the education they provide, and the government provides the capital for student's tuition through loans without institutions bearing any meaningful risk if students do not repay. Naturally, this drives up costs and borrowing. On top of tuition and fees, students can borrow…

With student loan debt reaching approximately $1.6 trillion, many are concerned that student loans may be the next financial bubble to burst. CARES Act funding and U.S. Department of Education actions led to historically low levels of delinquency in 2020-2021. However, there is concern that issues will balloon as soon as governmental action and…

The Federal Student Aid (FSA)'s Five-Year Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2023-27 presents tangible goals and objectives to help ensure that Americans can have broad access to higher education, without regard to any perceived limitations of socioeconomic status. The plan incorporates the Next Gen FSA initiative, which is designed to deliver…

In February 2020, the Congressional Budget Office released a report on the budgetary effects of student loans repaid through income-driven plans. This paper provides additional information on the analysis the agency conducted on the characteristics of borrowers in those plans and the methods the agency used to project borrowers' earnings,…

For people across the United States, student loan debt is a growing portion of the household balance sheet. More than 40 million Americans have outstanding student loan balances. The burden of student loan debt is causing undue harm to the financial security of individuals and households across the US, with disproportionate impacts on both low-…

This guide is intended for college financial aid administrators and counselors who help students begin the aid process--filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form, verifying information, and making corrections and other changes to the information reported on the FAFSA. The Federal Student Aid Handbook consists of the…

Over the past two decades, educational debt has quickly transformed US colleges and universities into spaces of cruel optimism: the higher education that students desire is all too often an obstacle to their flourishing. This study maps the contours of the white, middle-class attachment to the college dream, paying particular attention to the…

Student debt cancellation must be a federal priority for the new administration. As the devastating health and economic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic deepens, millions of student borrowers are held back by high levels of debt on top of job losses and the struggle to cover their basic needs. The pause on payments is only a temporary fix. Since…

Postsecondary education is a key pathway to economic mobility for many Americans, but financial challenges often make it difficult for learners to pursue and complete their education. Obtaining financing for postsecondary education can be a barrier to access for some students. The process is complicated, and many programs are ineligible for…

This introductory report outlines the challenges of postsecondary completion, the variable value provided by a postsecondary pathway, and the corresponding cost and debt. Together, these challenges create an inequitable, ineffective, and unsustainable U.S. postsecondary system in which individuals are increasingly reluctant to participate or…

This article estimates the effects on depressive symptoms, family relationships, social support, and academic self-efficacy of participating in a forgivable loan program, using an instrumental variable (IV) estimation strategy. In particular, we estimate local average treatment effects (LATE) of program participation on these variables, using…

In recent decades, several dozen colleges and universities have instituted loan-reduction initiatives (LRIs), such as "no-loan" programs. Institutions frequently cast such initiatives as efforts to increase socioeconomic diversity on campus. Using a difference-in-differences analytic strategy with national institution-level data, we…