Data from all 2010-2011 undergraduate students, who received a Pell Grant disbursement at Kentucky's two-year and four-year public institutions, were used to simulate the eligibility changes to the Pell Grant program in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012 and from the termination of year-round Pell. Specifically, these changes: a) the…

Loan borrowing among community college students has increased in recent years. This study utilized original survey data to examine this trend from the perspective and firsthand experiences of 107 community college financial aid counselors from three states: California, Florida, and Texas. Findings indicate these counselors are concerned with the…

Completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the first and most important step for students to receive their portion of the billions of grant aid dollars disbursed in federal student financial aid; however, every year many low income and community college students fail to complete the FAFSA. Over the past twenty years,…

Book vouchers serve as one component of need-based financial aid packages at the College of Southern Nevada (CSN), one of the nation's largest community colleges. This study compared the academic performance of Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) applicants in attendance at CSN during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years. A basic…

In 2005, Kalamazoo, Michigan launched a bold and innovative economic development strategy, The Kalamazoo Promise (KP), which guarantees tuition to every high school graduate in the district. Since KP inception, high school enrollments are up and college attendance has increased, creating national attention. This paper analyzes the benefits and…

The authors examine the factors that influence the college choice process of two-year college students and explore the effect these variables have on the two-year/four-year college choice dichotomy, using the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) of 1995-96 and the Beginning Postsecondary (BPS) component of that survey. This study…

The results of a comprehensive survey of the California community college financial aid offices and data from the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office provide insight into how financial aid office characteristics and financial aid policies and procedures affect the enrollment, retention, and success of financial aid students at the…

This article uses the 2005 Basic Classifications of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a framing device through which to examine patterns of student financial aid at America's rural community colleges, which represent 64% of all U.S. community colleges. Rural community colleges serve more first-time, full-time students than…

This research examined the high school transcripts of honors scholarship recipients to identify a better criterion for awarding scholarships than high school grade point average (GPA) alone. Specifically, this study compared the honors scholarship retention rate when the scholarship was awarded based on completed advanced high school math classes…

This study examined the use of education tax credits at four community colleges using data from the Federal Quality Assurance Program in 1998, the first year of the HOPE Scholarship and Lifetime Learning Tax Credit (LLTC). Preliminary estimates indicated that the two tax credits were expected to primarily benefit middle-income tax filers with…