Despite substantial investments in financial aid programs, the available aid often falls short of covering the total cost of attendance (Hanson, 2023). Today, college expenses represent 30% of the annual median family income, pushing many students to rely on loans to finance their education (US Census Bureau, 2023). Among student loan borrowers,…

The U.S. Department of Education's three-month delay in launching the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form and the subsequent lack of continuous access, ambiguities in the form, and data reporting errors have resulted in a significant decline in form completions for 2024. The analysis in this report--a first-of-its kind study…

Summary: In spite of a large literature on the causal effects of financial aid, the impact of funding on college outcomes remains an area of ongoing research with important unanswered questions. Studying the impact of financial aid presents the ongoing challenge of how to identify causal effects, as aid receipt is rarely random and at least partly…

National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators' (NASFAA's) National Student Aid Profile is an annual publication designed to give a high-level overview of the federal student financial aid programs that provide funding to millions of students each year. This profile includes an overview of: (1) The Federal Pell Grant Program; (2) The…

National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators' (NASFAA's) National Student Aid Profile is an annual publication designed to give a high-level overview of the federal student financial aid programs that provide funding to millions of students each year. This profile includes an overview of: (1) The Federal Pell Grant Program; (2) The…

Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA; P.L. 89-329, as amended) authorizes the primary sources of federal aid to support postsecondary education students. Title IV programs made over $118 billion in aid available to postsecondary students in FY2020 through Direct Loans and other forms of aid, including $27 billion in Pell Grants. The…

The Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA; P.L. 89-329, as amended), authorizes numerous federal aid programs that provide support to both individuals pursuing a postsecondary education and institutions of higher education (IHEs). The FAFSA Simplification Act (FSA; Title VII, Division FF of P.L. 116-260) makes significant changes to the underlying…

Current Title IV financial aid eligibility is limited to students enrolled in eligible programs as defined in 34 C.F.R. §668.8. Historically, eligibility requirements revolved around several factors including whether the programs were tied to a credential, the length of the program, and whether a student made satisfactory academic progress (SAP).…

This dissertation investigates the impact of information and policy on the efficiency of higher education financing, particularly for low-income students in Latin America. Through three empirical studies, it addresses the barriers posed by information asymmetries and institutional discretion in student loan and college admission processes and…

National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators' (NASFAA's) National Student Aid Profile is an annual publication designed to give a high-level overview of the federal student financial aid programs that provide funding to millions of students each year. This profile includes an overview of: (1) The Federal Pell Grant Program; (2) The…

National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators' (NASFAA's) National Student Aid Profile is an annual publication designed to give a high-level overview of the federal student financial aid programs that provide funding to millions of students each year. This profile includes an overview of: (1) The Federal Pell Grant Program; (2) The…

This study examines the impact of Illinois Promise, a loan replacement grant for low-income students, on college graduation within five years. A quasi-experimental design using propensity score matching is employed for first-time, full-time students enrolled as freshman from fall, 2007 through fall, 2009. Eligibility criteria are used to construct…

The Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA; P.L. 89-329, as amended), authorizes a broad array of federal student aid programs that assist students and their families with financing the cost of a postsecondary education, as well as programs that provide federal support to postsecondary institutions of higher education (IHEs). Programs authorized by the…

The Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA; P.L. 89-329, as amended) authorizes programs and activities to provide support to individuals who are pursuing a postsecondary education and to institutions of higher education (IHEs). During the 116th Congress, the House Committee on Education and Labor marked up and ordered to be reported the College…

In recent times when there has been a shift in public benefit of education from the higher education to basic education, beneficiaries of higher education take responsibilities of most of their financial commitments as students. The focus of the study was to find out the extent to which financial responsibilities affect the persistence of female…