Georgia offers two merit-based scholarships to in-state college students: HOPE Scholarships, which provide partial tuition support, and Zell Miller Scholarships, which provide full tuition support but with stricter eligibility and retention conditions. Studies have examined retention of these scholarships but not other dynamics, including gaining…

College-provided scholarships, or tuition discounts, are in the news. The National Association of College and University Business Officers recently estimated that the average discount for full-time, first-year undergraduates at private nonprofit colleges and universities hit 50 percent in the fall of 2017. In other words, these institutions…

Over the previous two decades, state lawmakers have made two fundamental changes to how they finance their public universities. They have shifted more of the costs of higher education to students and their families through higher tuition rates; and created new grant programs that are not solely based on financial need but require prior…

In 2005, Kalamazoo, Michigan launched a bold and innovative economic development strategy, The Kalamazoo Promise (KP), which guarantees tuition to every high school graduate in the district. Since KP inception, high school enrollments are up and college attendance has increased, creating national attention. This paper analyzes the benefits and…

The authors find that college students are borrowing more and taking on riskier forms of debt than ever before. If tuition increases continue to grow faster than inflation and family income and grant aid fails to keep pace, the authors project that more students will be left with few choices beyond student loans--and, increasingly, private loans.…

This article proposes that governing boards must carefully consider the implications of the admission and financial aid policy of awarding merit scholarships, without regard for student financial need. Such tuition discounting is seen as particularly problematic for private colleges, misleading to students, and potentially disastrous for…

Most Americans expect the nation's colleges and universities to promote the goal of social mobility to make it possible for anyone with ability and motivation to succeed. But according to Robert Haveman and Timothy Smeeding, income-related gaps both in access to and in success in higher education are large and growing. In the top-tier colleges and…