Using the 2007-2008 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, this study tested positively the hypothesis that college students are either likely to acquire debt above the national median or work more than 30 hours a week in order to graduate from a four year degree within six years. These results resonate with the theory of academic capitalism,…

College departure involves multiple mobility patterns that include lateral transfer (from a four-year to another four-year institution), reverse transfer (from a four-year to a two-year institution), and stop out (taking time out of higher education altogether). This study addresses how financial aid influences the likelihood of such mobility…

This exploratory study examines the difference between two college persistence factors--resiliency and institutional engagement--for low-income, working, first-generation college students. Participants in the study consisted of 52 respondents to the Family History Knowledge and College Persistence Survey. Among respondents, 50 students reported…

Every year, millions of students who would have qualified for financial aid do not complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Discouragingly, many of these students come from lower-income families and would have qualified for Pell Grants that do not have to be repaid. Using data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students…

National statistics indicate that approximately 50 percent of all graduate students fail to complete their degree; thus, understanding the factors that influence their persistence is an important research objective. Using data from a nationally representative sample of bachelor's degree recipients, the study aimed to answer three questions: What…

This article conducts a meta-analysis of results of studies by Andrieu (1991), DeAngelis (1998), and Liseo (2005) to assess changes over time in the effects of financial aid and other factors on graduate student persistence. A descriptive review of the studies finds that combination aid packages encouraged persistence in 1987 (Andrieu, 1991),…

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…

Recent research on loan effects on student borrowers has focused on pre-college and post college behavior, neglecting the loan effects during the within-college period. This study integrated the student retention models and financial nexus model to investigate the effects of different kinds of financial aid on degree attainment of undergraduates…

This article identifies the conundrum that exists between removing financial access barriers to college and the student recipients' inability to sustain reenrollment. After reviewing the findings of 7 research studies related to the impact of financial aid on persistence, the article concludes with a discussion of possible intervention strategies…

This study examines the effects of institutional financial aid on year-to-year persistence for a cohort of first-time, first-year students at three large, doctorate-granting public universities. Though billions of dollars are spent each year on institutional aid, much of the research to date on student persistence does not consider its effects on…

During spring 2001, Noel-Levitz created a student loan default model for the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). The goal of this project was to identify students most likely to default, to identify as risk elements those characteristics that contributed to student loan default, and to use these risk elements to plan and implement targeted,…

This study examines how institutional expenditures and grants (student financial aid) relate to retention and graduation. It looks at this relationship over a 10-year period and examines differences between institutions with low- and high-admissions selectivity standards. In general, expenditures for institutional grants positively contributed to…

The Millennium Scholarship Program, which provides merit-based scholarships for Nevada's students, is designed to increase college participation, college persistence, and the number of in-state students enrolling in state institutions of higher education (IHEs). Data gathered over the past five years reflect that Nevada's Millennium Scholarship…

Despite substantive research at the national level, local institutional information on students who work off campus while enrolled full time has been sparse. After considering the need for local studies examining the causes of term-time employment and employment's role in persistence, this research explores the appropriateness of using total…

This longitudinal study of 3,578 matriculating freshmen at a mid-sized public doctoral university in the Midwest found that students working on campus academically persisted at higher rates from fall to spring of their first year, and year to year thereafter. Also, students who worked on campus during their first semester graduated within 6 years…