Much of the research on economic stratification at selective colleges relies on data with limitations that tend to restrict how comprehensively or accurately studies can assess the incomes of students enrolled at selective universities, particularly over time. Studies that use quality data tend to find that the share of students at selective…

COVID has led colleges to brace for potential enrollment declines in the Fall, which would devastate budgets and potentially decrease the likelihood a student ever earns a degree. We take an early look at California's FAFSA applications up through mid-June, to anticipate how students may be responding to this crisis. We find that COVID did not…

To provide greater understanding, Trellis Research recently conducted a mixed-methods, outcomes-based study of parent PLUS borrowers in Texas. The study, "PLUS Borrowing in Texas: Repayment Expectations, Experience, and Hindsight by Minority-Serving Institution Status," provides a rare look into the repayment behavior of Parent PLUS…

The Federal Pell Grant program, authorized by Title IV-A-1 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, (HEA; P.L. 89-329), as amended, is the single largest source of federal grant aid supporting undergraduate students. The program provided approximately $29 billion in aid to approximately 7.2 million undergraduate students in FY2017. Pell Grants are…

Most students finish high school with low levels of financial knowledge, yet they are months away from important decisions about how to finance college. Students may not know about family finances, even though parental income is a key determinant of financial aid for college. This study measures the financial knowledge of high school students by…

Recent trends in higher education financing have increased students' need to borrow to afford college. This brief examines how federal student loan borrowing has changed from 2000 to 2016 by student race/ethnicity using logistic regression analysis and data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS). We find that the odds of…

This report describes four measures of the price of undergraduate education in the 2015-16 academic year: total price of attendance (tuition and living expenses), net price of attendance after all grants, out-of-pocket net price after all financial aid, and out-of-pocket net price after all aid excluding student loans. Estimates are based on the…

The Tuition Opportunity Program for Students (subsequently renamed the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, also known as TOPS) was created by Act 1375 of the 1997 Regular Legislative Session. The first college freshman class to receive TOPS awards entered post-secondary education in the fall of 1998. Act 1202 of the 2001 Regular Legislative…

Raising incomes and increasing opportunity hinges critically on access to post-secondary education and training. If Pennsylvania does not expand access to higher education to more of its citizens, the authors argue, the Commonwealth's economy will suffer and living standards will lag growth elsewhere. With a modest and smart investment,…

As college costs continue to increase, more and more Americans rely on federal student financial assistance programs to help pay for their postsecondary education. Despite the demonstrable and continually increasing importance of federal student aid, the majority of Americans have little knowledge of the Title IV programs or the processes…

Inequalities do not end once students enter higher education. Yet, the majority of papers on the effectiveness of higher education aid examine its impact on college enrolment. In this paper, we provide evidence on the causal impact of means-tested but otherwise unconditional financial aid on the outcomes of students who have already enrolled in…

This "National Profile" serves as a helpful resource document on the basics of the federal student financial aid programs that provide funding to millions of students each year. This information is more important than ever, as data from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) show that the number of students applying for federal financial…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate first-generation students' perceptions of how their lived experiences have impacted their academic and nonacademic success. We utilized focus groups consisting of first-generation students who attended a rural community college and a large, public, metropolitan, research university, and…

Public higher education has long been unaffordable for many students, especially for Black and Latino students who have substantially less wealth, on average, than their White peers. Unfortunately, the economic devastation caused by COVID-19 has only exacerbated these financial inequities for Black and Latino households, who have been hit hardest…

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) collects institution-level data from postsecondary institutions in the United States (50 states and the District of Columbia) and other U.S. jurisdictions. This First Look presents findings from the provisional data of the IPEDS winter 2017-2018 data collection, which included five survey…