The United States has widely experimented with merit-based financial aid to make college more accessible and affordable for its youth. Varying in design and benefits, these state-run programs subsidize college costs for academically meritorious high-school graduates. While broadly linked to higher college attendance the distribution of aid…

Less than one-third of dual enrollment participants choose to matriculate with the host institution after high school, especially at a community college. Using Perna's college choice model, this qualitative study explored how dual enrollment participation shaped students' choice to attend the host institution the semester after high school…

Do students respond to sticker prices or actual prices when applying to college? These costs differ for students eligible for financial aid. Students who do not understand this may not apply to some colleges because of the perceived high cost. We test for this form of "sticker shock" using College Board data on SAT scores sent, as a…

The proximity of proprietary institutions to working-class urban areas is rarely explored as a factor in Latina student college choice. Utilizing Chicana Feminism as a conceptual lens, this study explores the path of proprietary college choice for Latina high school students. Qualitative interviews and geographic data reveal how factors of race,…

This national report reflects the current state of college student satisfaction at four-year institutions, two-year public colleges, and career and private institutions. It examines the satisfaction and priorities of more than 578,000 college students across the United States. The report details what students identified as their biggest issues…

In the first chapter, I analyze the growth patterns of postsecondary education costs in re-cent years. It shows the trends of college revenue, expenditure and other financial items using data drawn from the Delta Data Project between 1987 and 2010. Connections between various categories of revenue/spending and state-level macroeconomic indicators…

Investigates effect of tuition and fee changes on matriculation rate of applicants admitted to group of 82 selective liberal arts colleges. Increase in college's tuition and fees causes a significant reduction in the share of admitted applicants who choose to enroll. The elasticity of this relationship is about one-third and is somewhat larger for…

A model is used to analyze the choices made by a sample of high school graduates in Hawaii and estimates of the price elasticity and the cross-price elasticities of demand for enrollment at the University of Hawaii are obtained. Findings show that the demand is quite inelastic and that changes in tuition will not affect enrollment appreciably.…

Discusses the efforts of the Virginia State Board for Community Colleges to curtail the rise of tuition in the community college system. Describes the methods and findings of a study to determine the enrollment impact of a $0.75 per credit hour tuition reduction. (DMM)

This study uses multilevel modeling to examine, after taking student-level predictors of enrollment into account, the effects of state public policies on the type of institution high school graduates attend. Four types of state policies (direct appropriations, tuition, financial aid, and K-12 academic preparation) influence the type of college…

Analyzes the influence of student aid on enrollment decisions of all accepted applicants at four institutions. Student aid was negatively associated with first-time enrollment, indicating that, in most cases, the amount of aid available was insufficient relative to the cost of college attendance. This suggests that institutions need to study their…

This report critically reviews major empirical studies of student demand for higher education in the United States. It focuses on one policy issue, that of equalizing the access of students of different economic means and using tuition and student aid to achieve the desired distribution of those students in colleges. The studies reviewed are…

A study investigated motivation to attend an out-of-state school among two student groups at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, one attending with the assistance of a scholarship designed to recruit out-of-state students, the other matriculating through general admissions. The university's overall program, scholarships received, tuition, and…

A modern marketing approach to student recruitment is offered as a means of facilitating institutional planning, enhancing communication with prospective students, improving enrollment forecasting, and eliminating unexpected shortfalls in tuition income. Marketing is distinguished from mere salesmanship and discussed in a practical program of…

The varying impacts of alternative financial-aid policies and delivery procedures on colleges and potential students are considered. It is concluded that there is little that financial-aid policy itself can do to counter enrollment declines, but that individual policy innovations do have some potential to redistribute enrollment. (Author/JMD)