Federal Student Aid is money from the Federal Government that helps you pay for college, career school, or graduate school expenses. Federal student aid is available through grants, work-study funds, and loans. Every student who meets certain eligibility requirements can get some type of federal student aid. This brief describes the types of aid…

The federal government now offers a multitude of complicated income-driven repayment (IDR) plans that are difficult to understand, enroll in, and stay in. Many students who would benefit from IDR do not enroll, and others will have large amounts of debt forgiven despite earning high wages. The current problems with IDR are not an indictment of the…

Is graduate school worth it? Graduate degrees--including master's, professional, and doctoral degrees--can help individuals boost their earnings and improve career advancement opportunities. But they can also be high-risk investments given rising costs, student debt, and the current lack of transparency about program outcomes. "Graduate…

Introduced this year, "How America Pays for Graduate School" is a national study by Sallie Mae, conducted by Ipsos. This new study is designed to complement Sallie Mae's "How America Pays for College" report, which, for the last 10 years, has provided insights into how American families plan and pay for college, with a focus on…

College tuition and student debt levels have been increasing at a fast pace for at least two decades. These well-documented trends, coupled with an economy weakened by a major recession, have raised serious questions about whether the market for student debt is headed for a crisis, with many borrowers unable to repay their loans and taxpayers…

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…

This Statistics in Brief examines three cohorts of recent college graduates 1 year after they attained their bachelor's degree. The graduation years for the three cohorts span a 15-year period: 1992-93, 1999-2000, and 2007-08. The latest cohort (2007-08) graduated in the midst of the 2008 recession. This Statistics in Brief first examines how…

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 "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…

The first part of this report describes the undergraduate borrowing patterns of 1992-93 bachelor's degree recipients and their graduate enrollment and additional borrowing through 2003. These graduates would have completed their undergraduate borrowing prior to the changes introduced by the 1992 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. At that…

This report on student indebtedness is based primarily on a current study which is measuring the average Stafford loan balance facing students, as well as indicators of payment stress. The study is based on data on about 325,000 loans from the USA Group's entire loan servicing portfolio, which includes both subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford…

Reviews recent data on cost trends in professional (especially legal) education, including interest costs, repayment mechanisms, and the issue of foregone wages. Also examines placement data and the ability to repay and refinance college indebtedness, as well as the developing relationship among college cost, credit cards, and consumer finance.…

This report briefly summarizes Alaska's student financial aid programs and the participation levels for 1991-92. After introductory remarks, more detailed sections focus on the following specific programs: (1) the Alaska Student Loan Program; (2) the Alaska Family Education Loan Program; (3) the Alaska Teacher Scholarship Loan Program; (4) the…

This book provides information to prospective graduate students on how to acquire financial assistance for their graduate programs by explaining (1) what the difference is between undergraduate and graduate aid; (2) aid eligibility; (3) where to go for funding and how much is available; (4) how to be "marketable" to targeted funding sources; (5)…

This guidebook offers advice to women students on surviving and thriving in graduate school. It takes the reader from the graduate school selection process to completing the program successfully. Written in a informal style, the 11 chapters include: (1) "Should You Go to Graduate School?" (pros and cons of attending graduate school, deciding what…