There is a dearth of empirical work that examines the relationships between federal financial aid policy and institutional financial aid priorities and expenditures. This study uses Resource Dependency Theory to explore whether changes the amount of financial aid awarded by colleges and universities during the last fifty years are best explained…

Students from low-income families are underrepresented in higher education, despite the fact that many of them are well qualified to enroll. When low-income students do enroll in college, they tend to be overrepresented in public community colleges and for-profit institutions, or if they attend four-year institutions, tend to attend regional state…