Sallie Mae's national study, "How America Pays for College," now in its fourth year, shows the resilience of American families' strongly held belief in the value of a college education. Even in the face of rising tuition costs and the worst economic decline in a generation, between academic years 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 Americans paid increasingly…

This document addresses the status of equality in access to higher education. Some of the motivating factors behind this presentation include: (1) College completion rates including rates of bachelor's degree completion are falling today, particularly among young Americans; (2) Reversing the current trend and increasing college completion has…

This paper presents the supplemental figures, tables, and standard error tables for the report "Student Financing of Undergraduate Education: 2007-08. Web Tables. NCES 2010-162." (Contains 6 figures and 10 tables.) [For the main report, see ED511828.]

The financial-aid policies and practices of colleges and universities have made too many headlines in recent times to remain the domain of technical experts. Boards of trustees, like other constituencies that are responsible for the health and well-being of postsecondary institutions, should be asking how issues being raised about student…

Every year millions of students and families sit around their kitchen tables and grapple with how they are going to pay for college. All too often they approach what may be the most important financial decision of their lives armed with incomplete, confusing, or inaccurate information about their options. College financial aid offices have a…

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…

American Association of State Colleges and Universities' (AASCU's) public policy agenda, rooted in an uncompromising commitment to opportunity for the nation's students, is expressed through the following core principles: (1) Higher education is a common good that provides significant benefits to individuals and society as a whole; (2) America's…

In order to understand whether loans actually expand opportunities among community college students, it is important to understand who is borrowing and who is not. A binary logistic regression was used to determine which financially needy students are likely to borrow from federal loan programs. The current study found that the following types of…

Community colleges are usually considered a low-cost college option, but the sticker price is only part of the real story--students often struggle to cover a range of related costs and living expenses. Financial aid can be a big help, but many community college students have a harder time paying for college than their peers at four-year schools.…

This paper is the fifth annual report on the cumulative student loan debt of recent graduates from public and private nonprofit colleges. This analysis of the latest available data found that the debt levels of students who graduate with loans continued to rise, with considerable variation among states as well as among colleges. This report…

This paper discusses what federal student aid is and how to apply for it. It also provides a list of federal student aid programs for 2011-12. Federal student aid comes from the federal government--specifically, the U.S. Department of Education. It's money that helps a student pay for education expenses at a postsecondary school (e.g., college,…

The increasing cost of higher education, coupled with the inability of federal and state governments to sustain parallel increases in levels of funding for student financial aid, has led to significant growth of student loans. This project analyzes the multidimensional student loans space in the US. This project also compares and contrasts some of…

Many higher education students combine their study with a job on the side instead of taking up a loan. This paper examines the factors underlying this apparently myopic behaviour. We find that standard economic factors explain observed borrowing decisions to some extent. Students with easier access to financial resources borrow less often.…

In 2006, TG estimated that 47,000 bachelor's degrees would be lost in Texas due to financial barriers experienced by college-qualified high school graduates from the class of 2004. With more current data, TG now estimates that the number will be 52,800. "Digging Deeper" explores how students who enroll in college continue to experience…

There is significant irresolution in many countries concerning the design of student loan schemes. In no country recently has there been more uncertainty as to the form that loans should take than Thailand. The Student Loans Fund (SLF), a conventional approach to financing, was introduced in 1996, discontinued at the end of 2005, and re-introduced…