Demographic and economic information were collected about students who applied for financial aid to attend graduate or professional school for academic years 1981-1984 through the Graduate and Professional School Financial Aid Service (GAPSFAS). GAPSFAS is a centralized financial need analysis service used by more than 700 graduate and professional schools. Attention is directed to: student characteristics, student debt profiles, student resource profiles, profiles of parents' income and assets, and total family contribution trends. Student characteristics include marital status, year in school, field, dependency status, age, housing preferences, and family size. It was found that the "typical" GAPSFAS student was an unmarried, independent student, age 21-30 who was about to enter the first year of graduate or professional study. In 1983-1984, about 28 percent of the students were pursuing master's or doctoral degrees in arts and sciences, 33 percent were pursuing law degrees, 20 percent were medical or dental students, and about 10 percent sought the Master of Business Administration degree. A consistent trend of increased borrowing from 1981-1982 to 1983-1984 was revealed. Additional findings are presented in narrative and statistical formats. (SW)