To cover the costs of college, students and their families are using loans, grants, savings, and, increasingly, a specific type of college savings plan known as a "529." These planned are named after a Section of the Internal Revenue Code that confers tax exemption to qualified state tuition programs. There are two types of 529 plans:…

The literature on college students covers five themes: (1) financing, (2) disciplinary issues, (3) diversity, (4) retention, and (5) students' roles in campus innovations and change, although most of the literature is devoted to funding and student discipline. Most of the articles dealing with financing focus on the rising cost of tuition and…