Some colleges engage in unethical practices to balance their budgets, such as accepting "marginal" students who qualify for loans and government-backed financial aid but not providing these students with the services and programs they need to achieve success. Too many low-income students who are often first-generation students find…

This article examines debt burden among college graduates and contributes to previous research by incorporating institutional and state characteristics. Utilizing a combination of national datasets and zero-one inflated beta regression, we find several major themes. First, family income and college experiences are strongly associated with the…

As the nation slowly emerges from the Great Recession, the patterns of student aid are returning to the paths they were on before the economy crashed. The federal government, which dramatically stepped up its subsidies to students in 2009-10 and 2010-11, continues to play an expanded role, but not a growing role. Students continue to borrow at…

Student financial aid--including grants and loans--plays a key role in supporting students' access to and success in college. Yet, despite periodic increases in grant funding, students and their families have increasingly relied on borrowing to cover more of the costs of higher education. As the number of student borrowers has increased and their…

After increasing by 18% (in inflation-adjusted dollars) between 2007-08 and 2010-11, the total amount students borrowed in federal and non-federal education loans declined by 13% between 2010-11 and 2013-14. Growth in full-time equivalent (FTE) postsecondary enrollment of 16% over the first three years, followed by a decline of 4% over the next…

President Obama has emphasized the importance of higher education, and recently implemented ambitious higher education finance reform that will serve to benefit college students now and in the future. Although these changes are noteworthy, little has been done to help the many individuals who currently owe student debt, particularly private debt,…

2008 has been a tumultuous year in the financial world, culminating in scandals and bailouts. In 2009, the author asserts, people can probably expect not only more financial upheaval, but also further attempts by state and local governments to stem the all-but-fated turmoil. But in all the talk of bailouts, of embattled homeowners, and the…

This report documents the methodological procedures and evaluations of the 2008/09 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:08/09). RTI, with the assistance of MPR, conducted B&B:08/09 for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education. Chapter 1 describes the background, legislative…

Though the labor market is slowly improving, the Great Recession that began in December 2007 was so long and severe that the crater it left in the labor market continues to be devastating for workers of all ages. Unemployment has been above eight percent for more than three years, and 12.7 million workers remain unemployed today. The weak labor…

This report serves as a comprehensive resource of accurate and timely indicators of higher education performance in Minnesota. This report provides historical and national comparisons to contextualize state data. "Minnesota Measures" also offers Minnesota postsecondary peer institution comparisons. As possible, indicators are…

Trends in Student Aid, an annual College Board publication since 1983, is a compendium of detailed, up-to-date information on the funding that is available to help students pay for college. This report documents grant aid from federal and state governments, colleges and universities, employers, and other private sources, as well as loans, tax…

While student loans provide college opportunity for many, undergraduate student debt resulting from typical and heavy borrowing hinders future investments in human capital. Propensity score matching analysis of the NSF's 2003 National Survey of Recent College Graduates demonstrates that debt negatively affects the graduate school enrollment of…

This report provides a resource of accurate, timely and comprehensive facts about higher education in Minnesota. It includes comparisons over time as well as national and peer institution comparisons to add context for the interpretation of the data. It is expected to be used by a number of stakeholder groups such as legislators, educators and…

This "First Look" presents findings from the 2008-09 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:08/09), which describes the enrollment and employment experiences, 1 year after they graduated, of a national sample of college graduates who completed a bachelor's degree in the 2007-08 academic year. The tables in this report…

This paper explores the impact of recent economic volatility on higher education and discusses the lessons learned and the strategies for the future. The author believes that America's higher education is in danger, but has an extraordinary opportunity. Several reports point to the country's lagging behind other advanced countries in educational…