This research builds a narrative of a nationwide study on tuition waiver and tuition assistance programs. The authors administered a survey to long-standing and newly implemented tuition waiver programs within universities that identified limitations and opportunities. The purpose of this study is to highlight the varied approaches to…

Pell eligibility for incarcerated people is a great rehabilitative opportunity, but several challenges remain. This article recaps five of the issues identified by the original research articles in this special issue. It also considers how solutions proposed in these studies may be beneficial across a variety of these issues and gathers…

Promise programs are an increasing popular solution to improving college affordability, reducing educational inequities, and promoting economic development. Promise programs are distinct from other forms of financial aid because they emphasize residency in their eligibility criteria, where students must live and/or attend school in specific…

As in other nations, higher education has many benefits for individual participants and for communities in the United States. But, the opportunity to attain higher education is unequal. To understand the forces that contribute to higher education attainment in the United States, this essay first provides a brief overview of the characteristics of…

New Jersey's state grant program delivers the highest level of need-based aid per student in the country. And the state's major grant program, the Tuition Aid Grant (TAG), funds all eligible students, rather than excluding students when the funding runs out. But different levels of grant aid for enrollment in different institutions within sectors,…

Tuition discounting at four-year private, nonprofit colleges and universities has been on the rise for several years. This practice, which colleges and universities use to provide institutional grants to students who are unable or unwilling to pay the full tuition and fee price, allows institutions to meet multiple institutional goals, including…

There is a widening college access gap in the United States. The ever-rising cost of higher education, coupled with diminished government financial support and growing income inequality, have put college out of reach for many at a critical juncture when postsecondary education is essential for enhancing career prospects. The situation has been…

Gaps in average college success among students of differing backgrounds have persisted in the United States for decades. One of the primary ways governments have attempted to ameliorate such gaps is by providing need-based grants, but little evidence exists on the impacts of such aid on longer-term outcomes such as college persistence and degree…

The 2013 study, "Looking Beyond Enrollment: The Causal Effect of Need-Based Grants on College Access, Persistence, and Graduation," examined whether eligibility for the Florida Student Access Grant (FSAG), a need-based grant for low-income students in Florida, affects college enrollment, credit accumulation, persistence over time in…

Over the last three decades, college costs have increased nearly four times faster than median family income. Financial aid has not filled the growing gap, and the share of college costs not covered by financial aid or what the family is expected to contribute has risen sharply. Rising costs and rising debt make college a riskier investment for…

By evaluating the impact of policies to financially support university students in Georgia, this article demonstrates the systematic spatial disparities that exist in a context of formally equal competition. The author uses a mixed-methods design, combining quantitative evidence on the entire population of Georgian university applicants in…

South Carolina is home to a robust higher education system including 33 public institutions including 3 research universities, 10 comprehensive four-year universities, 4 two-year regional campuses of the University of South Carolina and 16 technical colleges. The State is also home to a number of independent and private colleges including: 23…

This article uses data from the 2004 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study to provide insight about the range of tuition discounting practices at public institutions. Specifically, it examines the characteristics of students who receive tuition discounts from public four-year colleges and universities. A binary logistic regression is applied to…

The Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship (TELS) program was designed to meet the unique needs of the state of Tennessee while also incorporating the hallmark elements of existing merit-based aid programs in other states. Developed through a process involving elected officials and members of the academic community, the TELS program aims to…

The purpose of this descriptive case study was to trace the policy production process of a state agency, the Iowa College Student Aid Commission (Commission), to its function today. This case study relied on a review of federal and state statutes, a news article search, biennium reports of the Commission, and information obtained from the…